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Contents
january 2016
BUSINESS 7
estate planning: part 1 GuideLegal returns with legal news that affects your estate. To start, what if your wishes collide with what’s politically correct?
8
Zoom, zoom Associate editor Maggie Van Camp leads off this series on farms that are using specific skills to leapfrog ahead.
10 gigs of data
Right after harvest, Josh Fankhauser spends 80 hours studying gigs of field data. They’re his most profitable hours, he finds.
14 it’s more than a job
When an employee quits to take a career job, farmer Kris Mayerle asked, “Why can’t a job on my farm be a career?”
18 built on the basis
Ontario’s Peter Archer used his knowledge of basis marketing to add a successful, independent elevator to his farm.
22 a spirit for change
As Kevin Lisafeld’s experience shows, successful diversification takes the right mindset, not just the right business idea.
PG. 8
27 join the club
For this group of farmers in eastern Ontario, getting together to share data has become an essential business practice.
30 your own scorecard
These online tools will help you assess your own skill sets. Which skills can you build on? Where could you use help?
32 Guide HR — why are true leaders rare?
Is it better to be results focused or task oriented?
48 deal or no deal
Will new trade deals make Canada a farm equipment titan?
50 clear rules for using options
AME’s Larry Martin shows how options build market success.
As this issue’s on-farm stories demonstrate, excelling at a business skill can propel your farm to new heights, as long as you’re competent in the full range of other skills too. It’s a tall order, but when it all comes together, the results can be amazing…
CROPS GUIDE
52 getting rich from your data
Gerald Pilger asks, shouldn’t it be the farmer who owns the data?
56 busted flat
Take charge of your marketing, with Errol Anderson’s advice.
60
g uide life — Is your farm ‘too family?’
It can be better for the family if you put the business first.
33 data, data everywhere, but…
More farmers are getting more benefit from precision ag.
36 lessons from the last crop
What can we really learn from 2015’s unexpected yields?
38 so you’ve got a drone — now what?
Maybe you should let your agronomist be the pilot.
EVERY ISSUE 6 MACHINERY GUIDE
CG’s Scott Garvey gets to test the pickups. He feels your envy.
63 GUIDE HEALTH
Nobody wants to know how to get rid of lice. But just in case...
64 HANSON ACRES “Women are different,” Grandpa Ed warned. “Watch out!”
41 Big datA? not yet
Better tools coming to get more from precision ag.
44 the great canola yield rebound of 2015
Yields were shockers, Jay Whetter writes. What about 2016’s?
46 the difference between noodles and pasta
You thought they were the same? Thankfully, Cigi knows better.
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JANUARY 2016
country-guide.ca 3
desk EDITORIAL STAFF Editor: Tom Button 12827 Klondyke Line, Ridgetown, ON N0P 2C0 (519) 674-1449 Fax (519) 674-5229 Email: tom.button@fbcpublishing.com Associate Editors: Gord Gilmour (204) 453-7624 Cell: (204) 294-9195 Fax (204) 942-8463 Email: gord.gilmour@fbcpublishing.com Maggie Van Camp Fax (905) 986-9991 (905) 986-5342 Email: mvancamp@fbcpublishing.com Production Editor: Ralph Pearce (226) 448-4351 Email: ralph.pearce@fbcpublishing.com ADVERTISING SALES Sales Director: Cory Bourdeaud’hui (204) 954-1414 Fax: (204) 944-5562 Email: cory@fbcpublishing.com Kevin Yaworsky (250) 869-5326 Email: kyaworsky@farmmedia.com Lillie Ann Morris (905) 838-2826 Email: lamorris@xplornet.com
Tom Button is editor of Country Guide magazine
Stacking the odds Increasingly, the science that has the greatest potential to make a difference in agriculture is psychology. In recent years, we have come to appreciate the role of psychology in commodity markets, and in land markets too. We also think we have learned a lot about the psychology of succession planning, and even the psychology of technology adoption. In reality, however, what we have learned to date is mere child’s play compared to what is being learned now, and compared to the science that farmers in the next few years will be putting to use to drive their own profitability and growth. So let me start the year with an overstatement (this is the press, after all!). If I were going to rate someone as a potential farm successor, and if I was looking to predict their chances of success in farming over a full career, a good question to ask would be whether they read psychologist Pierrette Desrosier’s column in this magazine. I confess that, in my case at least, it took a bit of commitment to become an avid HR reader. Psychology can just seem too far from the dirt and grease of “real” farming to actually matter. But do what I did. Read a column and absorb what you can. Then read next month’s, plus the one after that too. Soon you will find that you come to the column knowing more about the kinds of value that you can get out of its science. That’s 4 country-guide.ca
when the amount of benefit you get out of it will also rapidly climb, as will the amount of interest you place in it. Based on the feedback I get, I’m not the only one to reach this conclusion. The column’s readership is steadily climbing, particularly it seems among mid-career, growth-oriented farmers. So start with this month’s column, “Why are true leaders rare?” it asks. And then it asks an even more basic question; Is it better for a leader to be results focused, or task oriented? It’s the kind of question we could debate endlessly. But now, fortunately, it is also a question that science has an answer for. And I guarantee you that the answer will surprise you. Who knew that you could farm better because you know that there is such a thing as a neural see-saw that affects brain performance? I also guarantee that if you read this month’s and next month’s columns, you will emerge thinking there is something akin to grease and dirt in them after all. It’s as if their psychology can test you in the same way you would test some new varieties in the field, with equal scientific rigour, and with equal real-world utility. Very soon, the psychology of leadership will be recognized as an agricultural science, joining genetics and agronomy, and the odds will favour farmers who are early adopters. Are we getting it right? Let me know at tom.button@fbcpublishing.com.
Head Office: 1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg, MB R3H 0H1 (204) 944-5765 Fax (204) 944-5562 Advertising Services Co-ordinator: Arlene Bomback (204) 944-5765 Fax (204) 944-5562 Email: ads@fbcpublishing.com Designer: Jenelle Jensen Publisher: Lynda Tityk Email: lynda.tityk@fbcpublishing.com Associate Publisher: John Morriss Email: john.morriss@fbcpublishing.com Editorial Director: Laura Rance Email: laura@fbcpublishing.com Production Director: Shawna Gibson Email: shawna@fbcpublishing.com Circulation Manager: Heather Anderson Email: heather@fbcpublishing.com President: Bob Willcox Glacier FarmMedia Email: bwillcox@farmmedia.com Contents of this publication are copyrighted and may be reproduced only with the permission of the editor. Country Guide, incorporating the Nor’West Farmer and Farm & Home, is published by Farm Business Communications. Head office: Winnipeg, Manitoba. Printed by Transcontinental LGMC. Country Guide is published 13 times per year by Farm Business Communications. Subscription rates in Canada — Farmer $43 for one year, $64 for 2 years, $91 for 3 years. (Prices include GST) U.S. subscription rate — $35 (U.S. funds). Subscription rate outside Canada and U.S. — $50 per year. Single copies: $3.50. Publications Mail Agreement Number 40069240. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.
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Call toll-free 1-800-665-1362 or email: subscription@fbcpublishing.com U.S. subscribers call 1-204-944-5766 Country Guide is printed with linseed oil-based inks PRINTED IN CANADA Vol. 135 No. 1 Internet address: www.agcanada.com
ISSN 0847-9178 The editors and journalists who write, contribute and provide opinions to Country Guide and Farm Business Communications attempt to provide accurate and useful opinions, information and analysis. However, the editors, journalists, Country Guide and Farm Business Communications, cannot and do not guarantee the accuracy of the information contained in this publication and the editors as well as Country Guide and Farm Business Communications assume no responsibility for any actions or decisions taken by any reader for this publication based on any and all information provided.
DECember 2015
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Machinery
By Scott Garvey, CG Machinery Editor
The contenders in the half-ton category for this year’s Canadian Truck King Challenge. Photos: Scott Garvey
The Canadian Truck King Challenge What it’s like to judge the 2016 pickup trucks t doesn’t matter which brand we’re talking about, when you watch the many television commercials advertising their newest pickup trucks, you’re bound to hear the “best-in-class” phrase for some feature or another. It’s the kind of one-upmanship marketers love to cash in on. In real life, though, do any of those claims carry the weight they should? And how does anyone really know how each truck’s overall performance stacks up against the others? A group of automotive journalists in Ontario decided a few years ago that the typical reviews of new trucks in a variety of publications and automotive TV shows just didn’t cut it. If you want to give consumers realistic information on trucks, you have to do more than drive those trucks to the store to buy a loaf of bread and draw conclusions from that. You have to make trucks do what they were built for. And that means putting them to work, which led to the creation of the Canadian Truck King Challenge. Each year a group of automotive journalists gets invited to cottage country in southern Ontario to evaluate the newest crop of pickups. This year I was one of the judges to join the team, testing four of the new half-ton models to hit the market. I can feel your envy.
There was a lot of vacant real estate under the hood of the Ford F-150 powered by the small 2.7-litre EcoBoost engine. But the truck’s performance was still impressive.
6 country-guide.ca
Only trucks representing something new get included. There’s no point retesting the same trucks with the last year’s features. This year, Ford presented two F-150s for evaluation, one with a 2.7- and the other with a 3.5-litre EcoBoost engine. Chrysler offered up an EcoDiesel 3.0-litre Ram, and GM delivered a new pre-production Silverado model with a 5.3-litre V-8. The trucks were driven over predetermined courses, both on and off road. They ran empty, loaded and pulling a trailer. Because they were pulling or hauling measured loads on the same routes, it was much easier to rate the differences between models. But picking a winner was still a difficult task; they all performed well. In the end only a few scoring system points separated the winner from the rest of the pack. I have to admit to finding a few surprises among the contenders. Ford’s 2.7- and 3.5-litre engines aren’t what would come to mind as a good choice for a truck to pull a trailer with, but their performance when mated to the brand’s six-speed transmission was nothing short of impressive in front of a 6,000-pound load. Chevy’s 5.3 litre with the cylinder shutdown feature to improve fuel economy offered the kind of torque you’d expect from a larger displacement engine and great performance on demand when paired with an eight-speed transmission. The 2016 Silverado also has new front-end styling and a very nicely appointed interior. But it was the Ram with its V-6 EcoDiesel and adjustable air suspension that stole the crown in this year’s challenge. The 3.0-litre diesel had impressive torque, idling up a hill with a 6,000-pound trailer in tow almost as if it wasn’t there, and the air suspension kept the truck and trailer stable, even adding to the truck’s capabilities off road. CG January 2016
Legal
Estate planning: Part I What if your wishes collide with public policy? By Nadia Campion, Lenczner Slaght arents often use wills to control the lifestyle choices of their children. The courts have long recognized the freedom of an individual to bestow his or her property in a will. However, this freedom is restricted by certain public policy rules that guard against the disposition of property in a manner that is contrary to Canadian values and the good of the public. As a general statement, wills are upheld by the courts as long as they do not expressly discriminate on the grounds of race, creed, citizenship, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, sex or handicap. For instance, a will that disinherits a child on the express basis that he or she is homosexual or that expressly conditions inheritance on the marriage of their child to someone of the opposite sex is void for reasons of public policy. Recently, however, a case emerged where the will, on its face, did not contain any discriminatory provisions but the testator, prior to his death, verbally expressed discriminatory reasons for disinheriting his daughter. The testator said that because his daughter had a child with a man of a different race, he was disinheriting her. The testator, Rector Emmanuel Spence, died in January 2013 at the age of 71. Rector was divorced and had two children, Verolin and Donna. Donna resided with her mother and Verolin resided with her father. In 1979, Rector immigrated to Canada. He was later joined by Verolin, after she completed her secondary school education. Donna remained in England and never thereafter visited or communicated with her father. Rector supported Verolin financially throughout her educational studies, both in Canada and abroad. In 1992, Rector told Verolin that he had made a will which provided that she would inherit his property and house in Maple, Ont. He gave Verolin a set of keys allowing her unlimited and continued use of that property. Verolin’s relationship with her father came to a dramatic end in 2002 when she told her father that she was pregnant and that the father of her child was Caucasian. Her father exclaimed that he was ashamed of Verolin and from that point onwards, he restricted his communications with her. He made it clear to Verolin that he would not allow a “white man’s child” in his house. From 2002 until his death in 2013, Rector did not return Verolin’s calls and refused to have anything to do with his grandson, Alexander. In 2010, Rector changed his will to include a clause specifically disinheriting Verolin. The clause stated: “I specifically bequeath nothing to my daughter, Verolin Spence, as she has had no communication with me for several years and has shown no interest in me as a father.” After his death, Verolin challenged January 2016
the will on the basis that it was void for public policy reasons, namely that it discriminated against her. At the court hearing, a witness testified that Rector told her on several occasions that he disinherited Verolin and her son because the father of her son was white. He also stated that he changed his will because he wanted to exclude Verolin and include Donna and her two sons, since the father of Donna’s sons was black. The court ruled in Verolin’s favour and set aside the will. Under the laws of intestacy, Donna and Verolin each inherited 50 per cent of the estate. The court determined that while the clause in the father’s will did not, on its face, offend public policy, the reason for disinheriting Verolin was based on a stated racist principle. In arriving at this conclusion, the court stated: “Does it offend public policy that the deceased’s other daughter, Donna, should receive the entire estate simply because her children were fathered by a black man? That, in my view, offends not only human sensibilities but also public policy.” The case is remarkable. It represents the first time that a court has gone behind what is otherwise a clear and unambiguous will to determine whether the testator’s stated reasons for disposition were based on discriminatory motivations. While the court made it clear that its decision to go behind the will was specific to the particular facts, it nonetheless considered evidence outside the four corners of the will. In doing so, the court opened the door to will challenges based not on the language of the will itself but rather on the circumstances or “true” reasons for a testator’s decisions. The case is currently under appeal. However, until the matter is resolved by a higher court, it is best that if there is a desire to leave someone out of a will or divide the estate differently among beneficiaries (particularly children or grandchildren), careful consideration must be given to the reasons to ensure that they do not contradict public policy rules. As the law stands now, courts are willing to look inside a testator’s head to determine whether the testator’s decisions are based on improper motivations, even if the testator’s head is six feet under. CG Nadia Campion is a business litigator at Lenczner Slaght in Toronto. Campion’s clients include small- to medium-size businesses, individuals and associations across a range of sectors in civil litigation such as commercial disputes as well as wills, trusts and estates litigation. She can be reached at ncampion@litigate.com or 416-865-2974. country-guide.ca 7
excellence
n i e c ent n e l l agem e c x E m man
far
Zoom, zoom
By Maggie Van Camp, CG Associate Editor
W
hich management skills drive a farm’s success? A business score card produced by the Agricultural Management Institute identifies 10 key business management areas. The implication is, you need to excel in them all. Is that realistic? Check it out at takeanewapproach.ca. Read the AMI list and give yourself a letter grade from A to D, as if you were back in school. How do you score in strategy and leadership? Or how about in people management, customer relationship management and marketing? Or in finances, information systems, managing suppliers, risk management, executing on your responsibilities, succession planning, and let’s not forget production? The other question, of course, is how do you improve the skills that need improving? That’s especially important on the farm, where progress takes more than knowledge. It takes inspiration, confidence and commitment, which is why we’re starting our year by bringing you the stories of five Canadian farmers and how they’re maximizing the benefit they get from their skills. Read on, and prepare for a great 2016! CG
SKILL: DATA ANALYSIS
10
SKILL: DIVERSIFICATION
22
Top farms have always gone that extra mile to achieve consistent yields and quality. The way they do it is changing, however, as you’ll learn from Josh Fankhauser in southern Alberta, who mines the gigabytes of data his family pulls out of their fields in order to generate data-based learnings that drive continual improvement in the farm’s economic performance. See page 10.
Yes, Kevin Lisafeld’s new product was inspired, and yes, by giving farmers a new way to load their drills single handed, it had great market potential. But that potential wouldn’t have been tapped without the business skills and the mindset that the Saskatchewan farmer has brought not only to his Airseeder Hopper but to all aspects of his diversified farming career. See page 22.
SKILL: HUMAN RESOURCES 14
SKILL: BETTER ADVICE
Our agriculture may be built on familyowned farms, but on more and more of those farms, quality non-family employees are becoming essential for success. As a result, more farmers like Saskatchewan’s Kris Mayerle are managing their human resources more professionally. Find out how Mayerle uses his grain and seed farm and his custom combine business to attract long-term employees who see his operation as a chance to build a successful, satisfying career. See page 14.
Traditionally in Canada, farming has been a solitary business — one family, one farmer, one farm. Today, farmers are breaking through that “single silo” model to tap into the experience of farmers far beyond their own fields and barns. In Ontario, Alain Lavigne and his group have developed a farmer-pay system that provides professional input at reasonable cost, backed up with actual benchmarked farm numbers. See page 27.
SKILL: MARKETING
SKILL: SELF ASSESSMENT
18
Here’s how Ontario’s Peter Archer has used his knowledge of basis markets to develop an independent elevator and farm service business that has changed how grains are priced in his region and given him more control over his farm’s future. Growth has been faster than he anticipated, Archer says, and more secure as well. See page 18. 8 country-guide.ca
27
30
Increasingly, the one skill that everyone absolutely must excel at is self-assessment. It isn’t a skill that farmers have a good track record at. Many farmers overrate their own skills, such as in marketing, where three-quarters of farmers consistently say they’re in the top quarter of markets. For a more unbiased view, check these websites. See page 30. January 2016
SEC_KIND15_M_CGW_SEC_KIND15_M_CGW.qxd 2015-12-02 6:48 PM Page 1
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excellence
Gigs of data hen Josh Fankhauser isn’t in the shop fine tuning some equipment, he’s often at his office computer, wading through gigabytes of crop production data and analyzing numbers. Like a lot of farmers, Fankhauser is happy with a wrench in his hand, and in a world where the ethos is “throw it out, buy new,” he is looking forward to spending hours in the shop this winter rebuilding and modifying a well-used, John Deere corn planter he bought at a bargain in the U.S. His mission is to see where a precision seeding tool has a fit on their grain, oilseed, pulse and forage farm in southern Alberta near Claresholm, about an hour northwest of Lethbridge. But he’ll also make serious time this winter for some equally hefty number crunching at a keyboard. In fact, on the Fankhauser farm, there’s a lot of similarity between Josh’s roles in the shop and on the computer. They both aim to find out how things work, and then to make them work better.
The farm goal is to integrate economics and agronomics. To Fankhauser, that means he needs data, and more data again And, of course, they’re similar too because of Fankhauser himself, a 29-year-old who is a leading crop production force on the six-family strong Lamb Farms. “And I do — I love to sit down and analyze the data and all the field information we collect over the year to see what made a difference and see what changes we can make, if any, that will improve production the next season. “And I also love to be in the shop to work on some seemingly worn out, old piece of equipment that still has potential, and get it working.” That precision planter will join a John Deere
10 country-guide.ca
1895 single disc drill, and a newer Pillar Laser disc/ hoe hybrid in the field next spring. “I don’t really know where this precision planter will have a fit on our farm, but it will give us some options. I’ll try it with canola; hemp is another crop that can do well in a row-cropping system. Maybe we will look at some corn — we’ll just try it and see where it fits.” His gutsy, fearless attitude, fuelled by a brain that never stops seems to be a trademark of the young farmer who has been back on the farm eight years after studying plant and soil science at Lethbridge College. As his uncle Ron Lamb quips at the end of an hour-long interview, “Good luck if you can figure out where he is going with all this… then we’ll all know.” Lamb Farms is a fourth-generation, mixed farming operation that includes about 6,500 acres of annual crop land, another 3,500 acres of hay and pastureland, and a 600-head commercial cow-calf herd. Most of their operation, just east of the foothills, is dryland farming, although they have about 1,000 acres of irrigated land mostly dedicated to producing forage crops. Fankhauser is a man of questions. He likes to see and learn how and why things work. “We are always testing something,” says Fankhauser. “We do field trials on everything.” He tests different crops to see what has potential, he compares new varieties, tests fungicide treatments, compares herbicide products, evaluates fertilizer products and rates, tests the soil, tests plant tissues, tests equipment… and according to his business partners, the odd time he might even test patience. “The overall objective isn’t to produce recordbreaking yields each year,” he says. “We just want a good average, very consistent yield we can almost rely on — that shows the farm is sustainable, and also remains profitable.” All the questions and learning lead toward a fairly simple goal — to develop a profitable and sustainable farming operation built on a solid foundation that looks after the soil. This farm has been direct seeding since 1993, well before Fankhauser was on the scene. Ron Lamb
January 2016
Photography: chris Yauck
By Lee Hart, CG Field Editor
Rigorous analysis of numbers from the field helps this farm achieve its business objective
excellence
For Josh Fankhauser, integrating field data with the decisions he makes in the shop leads to better, more profitable crop performance the next summer.
has and continues to believe that looking after the soil is the key to profitability. With that in mind, Lamb Farms has developed a number of practices to benefit the soil. In addition to direct seeding, crops are straight cut with combines equipped with stripper headers to leave tall standing stubble to trap moisture and reduce wind erosion. Crop residue is evenly distributed over the field. The ideal plan is to follow a nine-year crop rotation including grains, oilseeds, pulse crops, forages and specialty crops. Natural low spots that can flood out — they had about 1,000 acres flood in 2014 — are seeded to “whatever-we-have/binbottom seed blend” as a crop cover to use excess moisture and reduce the risk of soil salinity. Nitrogen-fixing legumes are used in their annual crop rotation, in perennial forage crops and also in cover crop mixes. As well, manure from the beef herd goes back on the land. “We are committed to looking after the soil, but the farm has to be profitable January 2016
too,” says Fankhauser — and now here comes the on-farm research. To keep the farm sustainable and profitable, what are the optimum production and management practices? The questions keep coming. There seems to be no end. Fankhauser is looking for the best production practices that work with each crop in order to optimize yields with the least amount of inputs. It’s a balancing act, but the on-farm research points him in the right direction. They’re not just simple side-byside strips that are eyeball assessed. The field-scale plots are properly laid out, monitored and measured. Every year there are several on-farm field scale research trials.
Everything put to the test The farm has six full-time employees. On the crop side, along with Ron Lamb and himself, they have two other agronomists on the payroll — one is full-time and one is a retired Alberta Agriculture research scientist providing regular consulting services.
“Everyone has to be tuned in and watching to see what is happening in the field,” says Fankhauser. “Our agronomists probably cover the equivalent of about 40,000 acres each season on our farm just checking fields.” However, research is not limited to agronomists; all employees are involved. “We don’t just hire workers. We have long-term, well-educated employees who are highly trained. And they are trusted to make decisions on the go. When they are out in the field and they see something that needs to be changed or treated differently, they do it.” Regular soil test analysis is basic to their on-farm research trials, sampling everything and often. “If we take out many more soil plugs we won’t have any soil left,” jokes Fankhauser. He wants to know nutrient and organic matter levels on varied soil types that range from good-quality, highly proContinued on page 12 country-guide.ca 11
excellence Continued from page 11 ductive clay/loam to beach-quality sand. “We have some really good cropland and then there is some that was originally native rangeland that shouldn’t have been broken. In the poorest areas there’s about 10 cm of top soil and then you’re into rocks and if you took out the rocks you’re into sand that would make a terrific beach — we have those two extremes and everything in between.” The research plots are field scale and
replicated. Each plot is 39 metres wide and 800 metres long. The plot width is designed to accommodate three widths of seeding equipment, one width of the field sprayer and four widths of the combine. Along with data from the seeding equipment monitors and regular notes made during the growing season, they also collect yield data. They do on-farm variety trials to determine which grows best. With Hard Red Spring wheat for example, his check variety is AC Carberry and he runs trials
to compare new wheat varieties against it. In 2016 he’s adding a new, highperforming spring wheat variety to the rotation. Along with variety test strips, Fankhauser does comprehensive fertility trials with different rates to generate a fertility response curve. He wants to determine the fertilizer rate that produces the optimum yield. Nitrogen is the gauge, including a strip with zero added nitrogen, strips that receive a half rate, a 100 per cent rate (based on soil test recommendation), a 125 per cent rate, and a 200 per cent rate. He’ll analyze those results to see which rate produced the optimum yield on the bell curve. Similarly, he compares seed treatments and fungicide applications to determine if they’re getting a response from the product. His field trials also compare the efficacy of different herbicides.
Looking for answers
With the crop off, Fankhauser’s first job is to prep those gigs of field data. It takes 80 hours, but is worth it.
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“It’s all about finding out what works for us and what doesn’t work,” says Fankhauser. “We’ve followed this plan of a nine-crop rotation for several years. That’s helped considerably with disease pressure, insect and weed control.” As a result they rarely use any fungicides, seldom having disease issues, and only use treatment if experience shows it to be beneficial. They also don’t use insecticides, as crop pests aren’t an issue. Moreover, Fankhauser doubts if there’s one tank of spray that goes on that isn’t a herbicide blend of some kind, and they don’t spray the whole farm or the whole field with that blend. They just spray areas according to specific weed pressure. With frequent last-minute changes, he says it helps to have a very understanding agchem dealer. “A product representative might tell us we need a fungicide for insurance, but with this rotation we don’t have disease. And we’ve stopped using insecticides which has allowed the natural predators of crop pests to multiply. We have researchers come to the farm and they are amazed at the number of natural predators in our fields and also the diversity. They see natural predators they didn’t think were in this part of the country.” A nine-year crop rotation is the general plan, but it isn’t written in stone. The crop rotation includes winter wheat, Hard Red Spring wheat, canola, flax, peas and forages as the major crops and January 2016
excellence on the minor crop side hemp, lentils, chickpeas and various blends of cover crops. Chickpeas and lentils used to be more prominent, but due to marginal available heat units and crop quality issues, they’re used mainly in a cover crop role. Crop economics can obviously factor into rotation some years — seed a few more acres of one crop to take advantage of a particularly strong market — but the objective is always to get back to the extended rotation. “We have a plan but we also keep it very flexible too, depending on growing conditions,” says Fankhauser. “Sometimes it will literally be a last-minute decision to switch from one crop to another simply because it works better with moisture or field conditions. The rotation is based on what the soil needs.” For example, they like fields to have a good crop residue cover and soil mulch. If one field is looking a little thin he might move into high-residue wheat rather than low-residue canola or peas. He’s probably one of the few farmers left who still stocks a mini-bulk bag of Polish canola. If he has an area that is damaged by frost or gets flooded in late spring, he may reseed that area with the shorter-season Polish canola which often still produces a crop and provides ground cover.
tion on varieties, seeding rates, rotation, crop protection products and other cropping decisions. “Agronomy is both an art and a science,” says Fankhauser. “You have to understand what the data is telling you, but you also have to know your land — that’s why it’s so important to have boots in the field during the growing season.” The program they follow gives him
a great deal of confidence. “Weather is always an unknown factor, but I know what should work out there, I have the data to back me up. I never secondguess anything.” When they try something and if for some reason it doesn’t turn out as well as expected, that’s OK, as long as he learns something, says Fankhauser “I want to know why it didn’t work and then we can try something different.” CG
Make a schedule for data All the records on field treatments, application rates and harvest yield data along with copious notes stored on smart phones come together in late fall and winter for analysis. “Whether it is two gigs of data or four gigs of data, the procedure is still the same,” says Fankhauser. The data is stored on his office computer. He estimates it takes about 80 hours over the season to collect the data and his first job in late fall is to spend probably another 80 hours cleaning it up. “Cleaning” is a process that involves detecting and correcting (or removing) corrupt or inaccurate records from the data base as he wants to look at only relevant information. First he takes a quick look at soil test results to decide what fertilizer supplies he needs to buy before year-end. As the fall and winter progresses he’ll spend more time looking at the details of yield and field history, and the data from various research plots to make a determinaJanuary 2016
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country-guide.ca 13
excellence
It’s more than a job
t the edge of the boreal forest in northeast Saskatchewan, the Mayerle family hires 13 full and seasonal employees for their 21,000-acre farm, seed processing plant and custom harvesting business. One of their employees is in his 43rd year with the company, another is going on 18 years, and many others have been there more than five years. What is the secret to their human resources success?
“ Employees have lives, ambitions and goals outside the farm… the farmer has to recognize this.” The people who work for Kris Mayerle are employees, not hired hands. It’s an important distinction, indicating a respect that is likely one of the many reasons the pedigreed seed farm near Tisdale has successfully attracted and retained workers for three generations. Mayerle, with wife Rhonda and the continued seasonal help of his father Erwin, grows wheat, canola, oats, barley, peas, fababeans, hemp and flax, with roughly a third in seed production. They also run a seed cleaning and processing plant and have operated a custom harvesting business in Western Canada and the United States for 22 years. At 45, Mayerle’s skill in human resources was developed first by watching how his dad handled employees, supplemented by the
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When a young employee left their farm to look for a job that could become a career, Kris Mayerle asked, ‘Why can’t that be here?’ By Anne Lazurko, Contributing Editor experience he gained when the custom harvesting business that he and Rhonda started after graduating from university took off. Even with this generational experience handling people, a few years ago a young employee at Green Leaf Seeds resigned, saying he was looking for a “career” job. “I had to ask myself, why can’t that be here?” says Mayerle. “Why does a 23-yearold think he has to work somewhere else to have a career?” The question drove him to hire a human resource consultant to examine how they were managing their employees. The results have been remarkable, and Green Leaf Seeds now has the reputation of being a good place to work, and yes, a good place to have a career. It starts with hiring the right people. Mayerle wants his employees to have a good work ethic, to be honest and trainable, adding, “I’m looking for someone who is interested in what we do here, a person who is happy to see the farm be successful, happy to see it grow.” But it would be reasonable to assume that few new employees arrive at the farm with that attitude. That kind of engagement stems from how an employer treats and manages the people he hires. “Sundays off no matter what. It’s amazing how much that means to them,” Mayerle says. Wages at Green Leaf Seeds are as good or better than anywhere. The farm has implemented a benefits plan that is costshared with employees, and it developed a bonus structure dependent on employee performance. “They work hard whether we have a crop or not,” Mayerle says. Continued on page 16
January 2016
excellence
Photography: David Stobbe
Kris Mayerle offers top wages, sharedcost benefits, an upcoming pension plan‌ and respect.
January 2016
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Where are the workers? Nine per cent of on-farm jobs are unfilled. Employees are scarce, and it’s going to get worse By Maggie Van Camp, CG Associate Editor
Continued from page 14 “If a weather event affects the farm, that’s not their fault. The bonus is paid on their work.” Green Leaf Seeds is also in the process of implementing a pension plan. Aside from these very “career-like” employee plans, workers are contracted with a letter of engagement, they are provided employee manuals and they go through employee evaluations. “Twice a year we sit down with employees and talk about their job and what they can do for Green Leaf Seeds,” says Mayerle. “But we also talk about what Green Leaf Seeds can do for them.” They also talk about employee strengths and weaknesses and where they’d like to be in five years. “It helps everyone know where they’re at and helps me to plan ahead,” he says. “If someone knows they want to retire within five years, I can start recruiting and training properly.” Daily, Mayerle tries to be organized so his employees know what’s going on and what’s expected of them. Also, he tries to include them in operations by listening to their ideas. “If they are good ideas, I tell them so. And if we implement their ideas, they can see it. It makes them feel more involved. Otherwise a job becomes humdrum.” Employees at Green Leaf Seeds have different interests and different kinds of expertise, and as much as possible they are given the opportunity to work in those areas. If one enjoys — and is efficient at — working in the seed cleaning 16 country-guide.ca
plant, that’s their winter job. Another likes to truck so he hauls grain. A third is good at fixing things so he is mostly in the shop. “Everybody does everything, but they can still specialize.” As people gain experience there are opportunities for not only increased pay but growth and promotion within the positions on the farm. Moreover, Mayerle provides professional development in the form of paid training days to attend the Farm Progress Show or Crop Production Week in Saskatoon.
Sound like a career yet? While it isn’t always easy to provide the full-time employment most are looking for, diversification of their farm business operations helps. Employees who start in early spring help put in the farm’s crop and then head to the U.S. for the first harvest there. They return to Saskatchewan for harvest and fall work and then go back for the U.S. soybean and corn harvest run. During the winter months, Mayerle is able to keep staff busy hauling grain, working in the shop, and cleaning seed. It seems to work, and perhaps the clincher is that as Mayerle speaks, it’s clear he cares about his employees. Today, he contends the trouble with HR on farms is often an inability of farmers to distinguish between the priorities of the owner and the employee. While the work is structured, he tries to be flexible. “I want to go see my kid in the school play, so I have to understand that they want to do those things too.” CG
Traditionally, farms used family, friends and neighbours to supply labour. However, as family size and rural population has shrunk, and as the size of the average farm has increased, our reliance on hired employees has multiplied. Today, farms often employ and manage a handful of people, and it’s also not uncommon for those employees to have roles that require more and more skill. “The need for quality employees is increasing across the country,” says Debra Hauer, project manager, Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC). This is reflected in the foreign workers program, which is now in use in more provinces and farming sectors. “The number of foreign workers in agriculture has doubled across Canada in the past 10 years,” says Hauer. “In 2013, there were approximately 45,000 foreign workers working on farms.” Another indicator of current and future employee need is the number of vacancies. According to CAHRC’s report, Labour Market Information on Recruitment and Retention, the primary agriculture sector’s estimated vacancy rate is nine per cent, with three in four employers reporting at least one vacant position in their operation. That’s more than 25,000 job vacancies for non-seasonal positions across the entire sector, with employers also reporting a 20 per cent vacancy rate for seasonal positions for an additional 16,560 vacancies. Now, it’s impacting farm decisions. Vacancies are forcing farmers to ask questions about quality risks with delayed harvest. They are also having to put aside expansion plans, consider investments in labour-saving technologies, and look at changing crops and livestock in light of their labour requirements. “What’s it costing your farm to have staff turnover?” asks Hauer. Farmers who want to test your HR abilities and skills can check out the CAHRC’s on-line self-assessment of occupational standards for farmers/farm managers at www.cahrc-ccrha.ca. From the same website you also purchase and download the AG HR toolkit which provides working templates and valuable information on managing the human side of your farm’s operations. J an u ar y 2 0 1 6
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excellence
Built on the basis
For this farm, finding a way to participate in how local grain prices get calculated has opened the door for growth and success By Amy Petherick, CG Contributing Editor op marketers know that marketing isn’t only the act of selling, it’s the act of knowing. In particular, top farm marketers not only know their own strategies, strengths and needs, they also know how they can make them mesh with the strategies, strengths and needs of their customer, whether that’s an elevator down the road or an end-user a long haul away. More than that, you can also tell you’re talking to a competent marketer because they seem able to make complex marketing concepts and techniques seem simple, especially if they’re Peter Archer. Together with his wife Donna, Archer crops 1,600 acres, runs a custom farming business that does planting, spraying, and harvesting, and also operates a grain elevator, Maizeing Acres Inc., just outside 18 country-guide.ca
of Warkworth, halfway between Toronto and Kingston. Add in a trucking business that they’re also growing, and it all seems very complicated, layered and connected. However, Archer describes himself simply as a basis trader. “We buy grain, hedge it and look for opportunities to sell it,” he says. It’s a deceptively simple way to describe the depth of the Archer family’s success. When Archer started farming in 1994, none of his four children (Ryan, Marilee, Borden and Burton) had been born. He wasn’t married yet and he wouldn’t even meet his wife and future business partner, Donna, for two more years. He’d just quit school, twice. “I studied engineering at McMaster for one year and I really didn’t like it,” he says. So he tried studying mechanical engineering technology January 2016
It was planned as a steady, gradual entry into commercial grain storage for Peter Archer. Then he saw the scale of the opportunity.
at Loyalist College and was just starting his second year when he had a eureka moment. A classmate — the kind who was always questioning the professor — provoked an outburst. He said: “You don’t get it! The whole thing with education is not what you learn. All that’s important about education is that you learn how to learn.” Archer had never skipped a class at university and spent hours on assignments in the library. At that moment, he realized he already knew how to learn. “That’s when it hit me; I wasn’t learning anything from sitting in a classroom. That’s when I quit school. Looking back at it now, sometimes I wonder why it took me so long.” Once in business, Archer turned to industry experts like Roy Smith (www. soyroy.com) as mentors, and he gained knowledge through trial and error, mostly from the errors. “Pretty much everything I’ve learned,” Archer says, “I’ve got a lump on the back of the head from.” Market volatility then wasn’t what it is today, and at that point he had no intention of getting into the grain trading business. Instead, Archer focused on keeping his combine running so he could make a living. Archer’s farm is a couple hours east of Toronto, an area that used to have some of the lowest basis levels in the province. In those days, moving grain was neither easy nor quick, but it seemed to him that one way to work around this limitation would be to build storage. In 1998, the Archers put up enough storage to keep 30,000 bushels on site. At the time, their ultimate goal was 100,000 bushels of storage. “And of course, that was supposed to take a lifetime,” Archer adds with a laugh. The addition of extra storage space has had a huge effect on local basis. Without additional space, grain had to leave the area at harvest and later be brought back for feed. The freight spread would come out of the harvest basis. “Now,” he explains, “the additional space bids for bushels instead of bushels bidding for space.” Today the elevator can flexibly accommodate 2.3 million bushels, thanks to two dryer systems. Nearly one million Continued on page 20
January 2016
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Photography: Deb Deville
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Wheat basis Like a lever pulling open a chute, basis makes grain flow. Or it shuts it off. Grain buyers use basis to attract grain when they need it. If they offer a higher local cash price, they’re in fact offering a stronger basis than other buyers in the area. A weak basis means the cash price is low relative to the futures market and signals weakening local demand or over-supply. Basis reflects not only the level of competition among grain buyers, but also the cost of marketing grain, and it doesn’t fluctuate as often or as quickly as futures prices. Generally farmers can make better choices about when to market, where to market and how to lock in prices by following basis levels. To be on top of that game, however, they need to understand all the factors involved. Wheat basis history in the post-monopoly era is still building the track record that will give everyone a better idea of basis ranges, says Neil Blue, crop market analyst for Alberta Agriculture and Forestry in Vermilion, Alta. Blue also teaches a “learn-to-do-by-virtual-doing” marketing course offered jointly by the Alberta Canola Producers Commission and Alberta Wheat Commission. “There has been a wide range of basis levels since the removal of the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly,” Blue says. Blue also says most grain companies in Western Canada are quoting wheat basis as the difference between a cash price and the appropriate U.S.-denominated futures price and indicating the currency exchange rate is considered in that quoted basis level. “This method of stating wheat basis in an uncertain or unknown currency does not provide the level of transparency that we have in other markets,” he says. For as far back as we have records on calculating cattle and hog basis levels in reference to the U.S. futures market, the respective basis levels are calculated as the difference between our cash price and the “Canadianized” futures — converted to Canadian dollars using the current exchange rate. You should understand how wheat basis is reported before you enter a contract, says Blue. Before you enter into a contract, confirm the currency details. Also you should know when the basis contract will be settled against a futures position. Is the contracted basis applied directly to the U.S.-denominated futures, or is it applied after the U.S.-denominated futures are converted to Canadian dollars? From when the basis contract was signed, will a change in the Canadian dollar exchange rate also affect the final price or is the U.S. futures price the only factor that can affect the final cash price? 20 country-guide.ca
Continued from page 19 bushels of beans and 2.3 million bushels of corn come and go through the facility annually. That large movement is aided by a good relationship with Kawartha Ethanol Inc. in nearby Havelock. This ethanol plant started operating in the summer of 2010, and created a new local demand for corn coming out of Archer’s elevator. Still, Archer looks back on his growth with a dose of humility. “I’ve seen lots of people who I considered to work harder and were probably smarter than I am, but who weren’t successful because their timing wasn’t right to be in agriculture,” he says. “My timing was right on a lot of things, and timing is everything.” Low interest rates also helped. “Everything I ever needed to do was going to cost money and we’ve been borrowing to expand but working capital was necessary to leverage that,” says Archer. “Working capital gets you through tough times but it also opens up opportunities for you and allows you to put in a bigger dryer or buy up a farm that comes available.” The basis and spreads will always determine when and where grain will move. “The basis is a living, breathing beast that will ebb and flow and move
grain to where it’s needed, when it’s needed,” says Archer. Grain has and will move both ways across the border, and Archer says the basis in Ontario is not always cheaper than its U.S. neighbours. “If we have more grain than we need, basis will get cheap enough to move it out. If we don’t shut the tap off soon enough and move too much out, the basis will snap to import levels and bring it back.” In the last year, Canadian farmers got handed a huge “get out of jail free card” with the limping loonie, says Archer. “Today’s bid of +C $0.85 is equivalent to -US$0.25, if we were back at par, we would take $1.10 per bushel out of cash prices and we would hear growers screaming in the wood shed.” One of the simple marketing strategies Archer has long adhered to is to embrace forward selling, which has helped him capitalize on opportunities. “…Unsold grain after harvest costs you money,” he says to customers who move grain through their facility. They encourage these customers to adopt other very simple disciplined marketing strategies, such as incremental selling and having a written marketing plan. For many dairy producers it has been a big eye opener when the herd leaves, says Archer. They’ve had to adjust from having a marketing board make risk management decisions on J anua r y 2 0 1 6
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To Archer, a clear understanding of the psychology of grain markets can be as essential as knowing the fundamentals.
their behalf, to making their own sales in volatile markets. For some, not all farmers, a few years of great prices, where they could pick up the phone and sell at a great profit any day they wanted, damaged their risk management skills, says Archer. “I see them adjusting back to the reality that production agriculture over time, adjusts back close to cost of production for most producers.” Successful marketers pay more attention to market history than to speculation, says Archer, who doesn’t believe in chasing price spikes. “Honestly, I don’t believe speculators will ever trump Mother Nature.” Becoming psychologically disciplined might be the greatest lesson he’s learned from his experiences. In fact, if he knew then what he knows now, he may have studied business and psychology back in his school days. The impact of human psychology in grain marketing leads him to a favourite story about a farming couple looking for marketing advice during a time when the commodity markets were particularly good. The husband called him about contracting because his wife was giving him grief about his current marketing plan. She wanted to lock in, since prices were more than they had ever sold for, but he wanted to see if the coming spring and summer would bring even better prices. January 2016
Archer’s solution for the couple was simple: “I told him, since he and his wife were partners, he should let his wife decide for half of the crop.” They agreed and before hanging up the phone the man’s wife instructed Archer to book her half. “Not two minutes later, that farmer called me right back to book his half too,” Archer laughs. “He couldn’t risk that his wife would do better.” Archer says women are often excellent
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risk managers. This attitude has inspired a “Grain Girls” club that his wife Donna hosted throughout the summer for other farm women who wanted to become more involved in the marketing side of their businesses. Archer says it’s been a great advantage to have Donna involved full-time in their business and hopes other farms will benefit from the increased interest in marketing these women are developing. CG
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excellence
A spirit for change It turns out that successful diversification depends on the mindset you bring to it By Lisa Guenther, CG Field Editor
Starting young “I was 16 when I rented my first quarter from my dad,” Lisafeld recalled. He was wrapping up farming for the year and was preparing to take a break with his wife, Barb, in Arizona when he talked with Country Guide. He sounded relaxed, and glad to escape from winter. Lisafeld grew up near Lampman in southeastern Saskatchewan. His farm was homesteaded in 1906 by his great-grandfather. By the time he hit 20, Lisafeld had bought three quarters. He ran a partnership with his father and brother for 20 years, along with his own grain farm. Over 40 years, he grew those first few acres into 46 quarters. But Lisafeld looked beyond farming for business opportunities. In fact, he had about five different businesses within the first few years of his career, including a restaurant and cattle. “And I stuck with the ones I enjoyed the best, I guess,” he says. One of those early ventures was renting well-site trailers to oil companies, a business he ran with his brother, Lionel, for 12 or 15 years. 22 country-guide.ca
The Airseed Hoppers may be a great idea, but what makes it a great business are business skills and energy, says Kevin Lisafeld, who is now passing those skills on to son Brad as well as to long-term employee Cory Lischka, below. Southeastern Saskatchewan, with its herds of horse head pumps and other oilfield monuments, was an ideal place for such a business. But although Lisafeld jokes about his “hobby farm,” he was clearly serious about the business side of farming, too. At 21, he followed his accountant’s advice and incorporated his farm, which allowed him to roll profits into the corporation. Learning how to run a corporation was to prove key to both the farm’s success and his other businesses, he says. Lisafeld has stuck with the same accountant, Kelvin Shultz of Wheatland Accounting, through his farming career. Schultz was always willing to go an extra step for his clients, Lisafeld says. “If I had a question that he couldn’t answer, he found it out… To this day he does that.” For the last 15 to 20 years, Lisafeld has also worked with a commodity broker, Toby Torkelson of Rayglen Commodities. Lisafeld explains Torkelson helps him with new- and old-crop pricing. This allows him to focus on what he’s good at, Lisafeld says, such as growing crops, managing people, and the business around his Airseeder Hopper. January 2016
Photography: images by gillies
hen Kevin Lisafeld was still a teenager, his mother, Evelyn, told him not to put all his eggs in one basket. That advice has served him well during a 40-year career as a farmer and businessman. But success doesn’t come from diversifying for the sake of diversification. Lisafeld has learned how to spot an opportunity, manage finances, find trustworthy advisers, keep good staff, and work with customers. Here’s how he does it.
excellence
Tinkering pays off The Airseeder Hopper, like so many good inventions, was born of necessity. In 1996, Lisafeld and his brother were into the swing of farming and oilfield work. The oilfield business was demanding, Lisafeld says, and so their dad Raymond often got stuck with the job of loading the drill on his own.
Raymond was going to buy equipment to help him load the drill, but Lisafeld said he’d build something in the shop. “So actually I worked on it all night. And by morning I had something that he used for the rest of that season.” Lisafeld’s Airseeder Hopper is a relatively simple plastic hopper that makes loading the drill from the semi a one-man job. Raymond, who was 66 at the time, was able to load the drill on his own for another 10 years because of the hopper. Not long after that, Lisafeld sold the oilfield business and was looking for another business. He took his Airseeder Hopper into Alcon Plastics in Saskatoon. Alcon, which had one of the best mould builders in Western Canada, designed his plastic. Lisafeld used some of the money he made selling his oilfield business to build inventory, got his patent and started hitting the winter farm shows. In the late ’90s, a string of tough years meant farmers were reluctant to buy anything. At $1,000, the Airseeder Hopper was a big bill at the time. But farmers were also hauling grain farther to terminals, and semis were becoming more common on the farm. Ultimately, it wasn’t a tough sell, Lisafeld says. People lined up at the booths. He went from 30 sales in his first year to 500 a year within three or four years. Farming and running a small manufacturing business are very different in some ways. Grain farming is a lot quieter than the Airseeder Hopper business, Lisafeld says. On the hopper side, he has to deal with thousands of customers. Some of his decisions are generated from feedback from other people, he adds. But he was able to manage both. “I had no trouble running the two. They ran into each other smoothly.” Lisafeld sold the hoppers at the winter farm shows, which also gave him a chance to gather information and talk to other farmers, all while making money. Lisafeld says he loved dealing with farmers. “They’re great people to communicate with and visit with at the farm shows. I loved that because I learned a lot from them.” The seasonal nature of sales worked in his favour, too. About 75 per cent of his sales rolled in from February to early May. Barb handled orders, and would forward any questions to him. He sometimes took customer calls while seeding, but he didn’t mind. Once they started selling into the U.S., American farmers bought the hoppers over summer. But that only accounted for about 20 per cent of his sales, so it was manageable. Inventory wasn’t hard to manage either, he says, because of the consistent seasonal nature of sales. Continued on page 26
January 2016
country-guide.ca 23
FCC Ag Outlook 2016 Understand the trends, see the opportunities
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Tuesday, February 9
Victoria Inn
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Tuesday, February 23
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Wednesday, February 24
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Tuesday, March 1
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Mike Jubinville President, Pro Farmer Canada
Mike is lead analyst and president of Pro Farmer Canada, an independent market analysis and advisory service he started in 1997. Benefit from his experience as he explains current and future trends in agriculture, the current state of commodity markets and what we can expect next.
Andy Nadler Agricultural Meteorologist, Peak Hydromet Solutions
Andy undertakes a variety of weather, climate and agriculture-related projects across western Canada. Find out how understanding the weather can help you make better marketing, agronomic and management decisions for your operation in 2016.
Peter Gredig Partner, AgNition Inc.
Peter grows corn, soybean and wheat near London, Ont., and builds apps and mobile resources for Canadian farmers, agribusinesses and organizations. He’ll help you discover how emerging technologies could benefit agriculture – and your operation.
J.P. Gervais FCC Chief Agricultural Economist
J.P. has over 15 years of experience in domestic and international analysis of agricultural policies and markets. He’ll provide insight into major economic trends shaping the Canadian agriculture industry and how they could impact your farm in the coming year.
2015-10-09 2:57 PM
excellence Continued from page 23 Unlike farming, Lisafeld didn’t face a mountain of capital costs to start manufacturing the Airseeder Hopper. He already had a shop and much of the necessary equipment. For 15 years, all the hoppers were manufactured on farm. The Lisafelds employed locals, including students and family members, to weld and assemble hoppers. Bourgault offered to buy the business, but Lisafeld wanted to employ local people, so Bourgault agreed to license the patent instead. Today the hoppers are assembled in a Regina warehouse, due to oilfield wages in the Lampman area. The business still employs four or five people around Lampman. Lisafeld says getting the right people is key to running a good business. One of those people is Cory Lischka. Lischka started working on the Lisafeld farm as a teenager, and, nearly 20 years later, he’s still a full-time employee. Lischka likes welding and running machinery, Lisafeld says, but they’ve also treated him well. In fact, he now farms one of the Lisafeld quarters. “I just love the thought that he’s able to do that. He’s kind of like a son,” says Lisafeld. At one time, the hopper business was earning more than the farm. These days the sales are tailing off. Lisafeld is tempted to think some of the big manufacturers infringed on his patent, but he’s not going to lawyer up over it. He only has a couple of years left on the patent, and he’s close to retirement himself. Now he’s focused on farm succession with his son, Brad.
He’s also mentoring Brad and Cory in their own manufacturing business, CobraL Manufacturing. Their main product is the Airseeder Auger Hydra System, a hydraulic kit that saves farmers’ backs when they need to move the seed cart’s auger. Lisafeld helped design it, but he’s leaving the rest to the next generation. They’re into the third year with the company, hitting the farm shows in the winter and farming through the growing season. “Their plates are full,” Lisafeld says. But although they’ll be very busy year round, it’s good for them to be diversified, he says. Besides, he says, his mother would certainly approve. CG
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Join the club This farm finds that belonging to a farm management group improves their decisionmaking, and reduces their stress By Helen Lammers-Helps lain Lavigne has belonged to a farm management group for 25 years and says he couldn’t imagine farming without it. “It puts the picture of the whole farm in front of you… it helps us evaluate our strengths and weaknesses,” says Lavigne, who farms with his family in Ontario, an hour east of Ottawa. “It takes some of the risk out of farming, so there is less stress.” The goal of this farm management group is to help producers better understand their accounting reports and to make objective farm management decisions, says Luc Gagné, the group’s farm management consultant. “It takes the emotion out of it. When you know where you come from, it is easier to go forward with expansion that makes sense for your personal and farm objectives and goals.” There are currently 60 members in this farm man-
agement group which goes by the name Groupement de gestion agricole de l’Ontario (which translates to “Ontario Farm Management Group”). Farmers pay an annual membership fee of $1,650 that covers the salary of a farm business consultant and allows members to compare their farm’s financial and technical data against other farmers… on an anonymous basis. The group got its start when the Ontario government reduced its extension services to farmers in the late 1980s, which is when producers decided to replace that service and try to go one better by hiring their own adviser. “We realized we were missing the agriculture specialist services, and at the same time, farming was becoming more complicated,” Lavigne explains. Continued on page 28
Before Alain (l) and Jean-Pierre Lavigne make new investments, they compare their profitability against their group’s numbers.
Photography: MAO Photo (maophoto.com)
January 2016
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1+1=3 Today’s problems are often complex and interconnected and the solutions are neither easy nor simple, which means business leaders need to put aside selfinterest and work together to solve them. It’s called collective impact, a teamwork approach that has a long history in the farming industry. However, as the competition for land, employees and buyers heats up and farms become more intense and as our agricultural extension structure weakens, have our rural links become too fragmented for old-style information sharing? Maybe the strategy of being bigger and better than our neighbours at any cost isn’t building the relationships and strategies for sustainable, long-term growth. Instead we should take a page from our own history and current business strategist’s Lisa Renner’s new book: 1+1=3, The New Math of Business Strategy. Renner has collaborated with competitors to build a family of six multi-owned companies by age 36. In her book, she tells how collaboration is helping businesses achieve the impossible or rather, what was impossible on their own. It seems the idea of working together is spreading in the business world. When the recent IBM Global CEO Study asked 1,700 CEOs from 64 countries how their organizations need to change to be successful in the future, the most common response was partnering or collaborating with external organizations. The Agricultural Management Institute is trying to resurrect collaboration. The Power of Groups: a farmer’s guide to working in small groups for better results can be downloaded for free from www. takeanewapproach.ca. On the website you will also find a list of club advisers available to help any new or existing farm clubs across Ontario, and other provinces have similar services that can be found by searching their sites. In Ontario, these advisers will facilitate a whole year of meetings and complete a business plan on behalf of the farm business management club. The plan will state the purpose and goals, an action plan and specific parameters for the club’s longterm sustainability, but check details in your own province.
“ You have to be open minded and be ready to take the farm in new directions.” — Alain Lavigne Continued from page 27 Gagné, their adviser, says a broad range of farms are involved in the group. These include dairy farms with anywhere from 40 to 400 cows, along with turkey, chicken, egg, and cash crop operations. The organization falls under the auspices of Les Groupes conseils agricoles du Québec (GCAQ), an umbrella group for farm management groups in Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba. This gives the group access to software for tracking farm finances and also gives the farm management consultant access to training and other resources. The group uses Agritel software that
tracks farm business financial performance, while Budgitel software is used for making future projections. Farmers also have the opportunity to compare their financial performance indicators against other group members. All of the aggregated financial information is anonymous. Detailed technical and economic information from the farm is collected, says Gagné. This could include inventories, number of hours worked, quantity of milk produced, age at first calving and calving interval. “Different ratios are calculated for the farm in general but also for the dairy and cash crop sides of the farm,” Gagné says. “For instance, cash
Succession planning is better with real comparisons against other farms, the Lavignes agree.
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flow, debt repayment, cost of production, and residual balance are calculated as well as profit per cow, cost of raising a heifer or the cost of production for milk on the dairy side.” As part of their fee, members are also entitled to a set number of hours of service from the farm management consultant. If they need more time than that because they are working on a special project, they can hire the adviser on an hourly basis. (Note: Growing Forward funding may be available to offset the extra cost of consulting.) The consultant can play a role in all aspects of decision-making from information gathering to choosing a solution, monitoring the results and making any adjustments needed. For instance, Lavigne says if his tractor broke down, Gagné would help him decide if he should repair the tractor or invest in a new one. Lavigne, along with his family and employees, milks 120 cows three times per day. The family also farms 1,000 acres and has a maple syrup bush with 1,600 taps near Ste-Anne-de-Prescott. When he first joined the group, Lavigne was farming with his father and brothers. The farm management group helped with the transition of ownership to include the next generation, his son, Jean-Pierre, and daughter-in-law, Shana. Since 2009, group members with more than 100 kg of milk quota or 100 cows have also benefited from being able to compare their financial data with a larger pool of farmers in eastern Ontario and Quebec. The farms are divided into groups depending on whether they fall into the top, middle or bottom tier based on their financial and technical performance. In addition to an annual meeting where the group analysis is presented, there have been summer picnics and bus trips to visit farms in other areas, allowing for an informal flow of information too. “To exchange information with other farmers is an enriching experience,” says Lavigne. Gagné agrees. “As a consultant, I bring ideas and information but what farmers can get just talking together is much more important and constructive.” Lavigne cautions that group members need to be progressive. “You have to be open minded and be ready to take the farm in new directions,” he says. “If you
are spending too much raising your own calves, you have to be willing to think about buying replacement heifers instead.” Fortunately, the younger generation seems to be increasingly comfortable with sharing information, notes Lavigne. Stability is important for the non-profit group which is run by a volunteer board. Lavigne says it has helped that Gagné has
been their adviser for 21 years and the group’s secretary, Johanne Lafrance, has held that position for the past 24 years. For farmers thinking of starting their own group, Gagné cautions that it can take four or five years to realize the full potential when starting out. “During that time, support and funding are needed to make sure the group will stay alive.” CG
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January 2016
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Your own By Amy Petherick, CG Contributing Editor
These tools can help you assess your skills and figure out what strengths you can build on, what skills you need to sharpen, and where you should hire help
here was a time when going up against your neighbours in a plowing match was the best and sometimes really the only way for farmers to assess their skill level. But that was then. Today, farm businesses have grown way more sophisticated and, although they still aren’t always easy to find, skills assessments have improved too. Since 2000, the Purdue University Extension has been offering a skills assessment they call “Are Your Farm Business Management Skills Ready for the 21st Century?” It’s no more than a simple collection of checklists which ask participants to rate their own abilities in a wide range of categories, including production management, procurement and selling, financial management, personnel management, strategic positioning, relationship management, leadership, and risk management. Neither long nor exceptionally scientific, the tool was created to help farmers think more concretely about the activities they perform and what skills will become more critical to their future success, says Craig Dobbins, one of the original authors. In fact, says Dobbins, the team of researchers who wrote the assessment (he was a member) were driven at the time by a need for succession planning tools. Recalls Dobbins, “We were just trying to get people to think about what they bring to the table and what the business needs, especially with family businesses where the main criteria in joining the business is simply being family.” As it turned out, the list did make a great conversation starter, and Dobbins personally witnessed more than one occasion where it successfully changed family discussions into a much more focused and professional process. Dobbins says he doesn’t really know just how often the assessment
has been used because it’s now so widely available, but initially they had hoped it was something farmers would consider using regularly as a way to track their own progress in professional development. The authors also hoped the systems would see farmers transfer management tasks to other members of the team or hire the expertise where they lacked it, rather than allow identified weaknesses to persist without working to correct them. Of course, the system could also help farmers find their inherent strengths and do a better job of building on them as part of their business’s overall strategy. As time passed, however, the extension service itself moved to using personality assessments instead, Dobbins says. “We found that getting people to talk to one another was more important than identifying skills, and the Myers-Briggs assessment really did help,” Dobbins says. “I think that there is a place for skills assessment in managing your career,” he continues, and he believes it’s always good for managers to know as much about their own strengths and weaknesses as they can. Nor, really, does he think most farmers would be shocked by what the assessments uncover. Instead, he sees them more as confidence boosters that help to confirm things people think they know about themselves already. But personality assessments are not to be confused with skills assessments, says Portia MacDonald-Dewhirst, executive director at the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC). While the Myers-Briggs assessment may have uses in succession planning, it doesn’t tell you whether someone is well prepared for a specific job. “Per-
scorecard
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sonality assessments are about characteristics that define your personality and don’t necessarily have any relevance to a position,” MacDonald-Dewhirst explains. “What you really want are knowledge and skills to be aligned with the position.” Once you have someone working at the job, you can then go further by examining their competencies, described as the underlying factors that have an impact on how people get work done, not just what they do. CAHRC has also created a database of national occupational standards and competence profiles. In creating skills assessments, they worked with an extensive network of farm managers, workers, and specialists to specifically focus on positions in primary production. Their latest project, the Labour Market Initiative, will go even further to outline skill shortages on farms across the country when it’s released in March. In truth, however, it’s actually something of a concern that farmers’ ability to think clearly about skills assessments is likely to become even more important, MacDonald-Dewhirst says. That’s because, as many farmers would agree, human resource management isn’t something they excel in. “Farmers are really good at what they do, they’re focused on production, and they didn’t go to school to study human resource management,” MacDonaldDewhirst says, “but whether you’re managing yourself, family, consultants, or staff, you’re managing people, and you’ve got to do it in an effective way or you’re leaving money on the table.” Although many of the tools offered may appear to be tailored to farm managers with a lot of staff, MacDonald-Dewhirst says farmers can also apply the skills assessments to themselves. Business people who want to conduct their assessments privately are encouraged to do so. In fact, she thinks many farmers would get great professional development value out of identifying their own strengths and where they could use some assistance or additional learning opportunities. For example, Sandra MacKinnon, who works for the Prince Edward Island department of agriculture and forestry, says she has personally seen skills assessments be used well by farmers in her region through the Future Farmer Program (FFP). When the program was launched in 2003, one of the critical pillars that was developed for it is now known as the Farm Manager DACUM Chart. MacKinnon says that basically, they collected a group of farm owners and managers together for a few days to talk about what they all do on a daily basis. After they’d listed all the skills they needed to do those jobs, they organized the list into general areas of competency, highlighting the skills that the group felt were most critical for a new farmer to work on first.
January 2016
Today, when farmers enrol in the FFP program, the first thing they need to complete is a self-evaluation that questions their abilities in 200-plus skill areas. “Some future farmers love the idea of going through the checklist, others are less enthusiastic,” MacKinnon admits. “Personally, I really feel it helps to focus in on areas that you may not have as much confidence in.”
Doing a mediocre job of HR management means you’re leaving money on the table, warns CAHRC’s MacDonald-Dewhirst Much like the Purdue checklist, the skills assessment used in P.E.I. covers financial, human resource, production and marketing skills, but also addresses record management, regulation interpretation, communication, environmental management, and personal competency development skills. Interestingly, the two largest general areas of competency were the business strategies and personal competency groups. However, when the group identified core skills critical for new farmers to learn first, production management became the largest of the general areas. Simple as it may sound, MacKinnon says, it’s really helpful for young farmers to identify that “Manage herd/crop health,” “Prepare product for sale,” and “Monitor and control costs” are more important to learn immediately than “Secure insurance,” “Plan tax strategies,” or “Evaluate genetics.” “Time is so precious to people who are just starting out,” she says. “They’re going to be very selective in what they are choosing and what skills they want to improve.” Once the five-year guidance program is complete and these new farmers are completely on their own, MacKinnon doesn’t know how many will revisit their original checklist to re-evaluate their progress or identify new competencies to begin developing. But the chart does very effectively demonstrate how skill development does evolve through a farming career. Many mid-career farmers will master the basics and can start to develop other identified skills, such as succession planning, lobbying, dispute resolution, developing comparative standards, systems evaluation, and maintenance of personal health. Regardless, whether you’re just starting out or whether you’ve been in the industry for years, mapping a path of professional development can be a lot more strategic, and also a lot more rewarding, than it used to be. CG
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Why are true leaders rare? By Pierrette Desrosiers, psychologist and coach
f given a choice, would you prefer to be seen as a results-focused leader, or as a leader with exceptional social skills? In short, do you prefer to cultivate strong analytical skills, are you highly motivated to reach goals, do you have initiative, and are you focused on exceptional delivery of results and effective problem solving? Or do you prefer to excel in communication skills, empathy, and the ability to motivate a team? Or, would you prefer to succeed in both areas? In 2009, a survey of 60,000 employees compared the characteristics of “great” and “not great” leaders. This study gives us an excellent opportunity to compare leadership styles. Those leaders who ranked very high in the “resultsfocused” or “task-oriented” categories were rated 14 per cent higher in leadership skills than the average, while those who scored as very “people oriented, or high on social skills” were rated 12 per cent above average. We can conclude that task orientation gives you a small advantage if you want to be seen as a leader. But what about those who ranked highly on both scales? This is where the research becomes interesting: Those who scored as both task oriented and peopleoriented were ranked 72 per cent higher than average in their leadership ability. But how often do these skill sets coalesce in a single person? How many managers can be results focused and people focused at the same time? When studying this question, David Rock, director of the Neuroleadership Institute, found this combination of qualities to be quite rare. Only 0.77 per cent — less than 1.0 per cent! — of leaders ranked in the top 33 per cent of both categories. Even when he broadened his search to include managers who ranked in the top 50 per cent of both categories, he concluded that only five per cent of managers possess superior skills in each. There is a different message here too. If you think you possess both of these skill sets at a very high level, you’re either a true exception, or you’re in denial. Many managers have a positive self-bias — they view themselves as more skilled than they actually are. Ask yourself some difficult questions to figure out which is true. But before you make that determination, spend some time contemplating these statistics about entrepreneurs: Studies have shown that only 10 per cent of entrepreneurs have a realistic view of themselves. When asked to self-evaluate on intelligence and competence, 75 per cent of leaders guessed that they belonged in the top 25 per cent. 32 country-guide.ca
According to Rock, task orientation and peopleorientation function like a neural see-saw in your brain. From neuroimaging studies, he concluded that when one of these areas of the brain becomes more active, the other becomes less active. People literally overdevelop one capacity at the expense of the other. But great leaders need both of these sets of skills. A task-focused manager who develops a stellar company vision but doesn’t have anyone who understands her vision, likes her, or believes in her will find herself alone, unable to bring her plans to fruition. Even worse, some leadership styles trigger resistance, demotivating their employees until they lose their best resources. Of course, the opposite problem isn’t any better. You can be the good guy who everyone likes to invite to parties, but if you do not cultivate problemsolving abilities, a vision, and an effective plan to reach your goals, you will fail to grow your company. I’ve met many farm entrepreneurs who have built large, successful farms. Almost without exception, they were highly goal oriented. When they were small and ran their businesses by themselves, it worked. But as they expanded and hired employees, they discovered a need to also be people oriented. They needed to learn to share their vision, listen to others, ask questions, and understand others’ needs and motivations. A lack of those skills threaten the viability of the business. So, how do we respond to this reality? First, understand your strengths and weaknesses. Second, commit to improving the skills in which you are weaker. Remember: Work on one skill at a time. Don’t try to tackle time management, problem solving, communication skills, and stress management all at once — you’ll burn out! For years, the only skills that were valued were “business-oriented” results that could be quantified and charted. Now we know that the boss’s people skills are a critical piece of the puzzle. When you develop people skills to go along with your business skills, you will bring yourself to a whole new level. Can you afford to not invest in your own development? CG Pierrette Desrosiers, MPS, CRHA is a work psychologist, professional speaker, coach and author who specializes in the agricultural industry. She comes from a family of farmers and she and her husband have farmed for more than 25 years. Find her at www.pierrettedesroiers.com, or contact her at pierrete@pierrettedesrosiers.com. January 2016
By Gord Gilmour ⁄⁄ Associate editor
Data, data everywhere, but… Some big ag players and Silicon Valley investors are convinced that precision agriculture and ‘big data’ are the next big things. Convincing farmers is another matter he problem with any new ag technology is that the engineers can design it, the manufacturers can make it and the marketers can sell it, but it’s left to the farmers out in the field to figure out exactly how to make it work. That’s the dynamic today for precision agriculture, according to one specialist. Mike Duncan, a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) research chair at Ontario’s Niagara College, says the possibilities of precision agriculture are tantalizingly close, but no one has fully captured them yet. Analysts often speak of an “adoption curve” for new technology. First, a few innovators test drive the technology. Then a slightly larger group of “early adopters” jump on board and work the bugs out of the system. They’re followed by the “early majority,” then the “late majority,” which typically make up
two-thirds or more of the potential uses. The “laggards” finally bring up the rear. Duncan says precision agriculture in Canada has barely started down this path. “There’s a curve?” the outspoken Duncan asked rhetorically in an interview with Country Guide. “At the moment I would say there are some early adopters in the game. The hardware people are forcing the issue by selling machines that no one knows how to use effectively yet.” That’s not to say there aren’t uses for it — there is a solid group of growers who has done the early spadework of breaking their fields up into production zones and using variable-rate technology to make more efficient input applications. It’s in the area of taking it one step further and generating data that can paint a clearer picture of what works and doesn’t that many lag behind, Duncan said. “The only people with data are the people with the new technology — and most of them use it as a really accurate clock and overwrite or ignore the data,” Duncan said. “Of those who collect data, most have no data discipline and can’t remember which field did what — so there are a small few with some really good data, a bigger bunch that have the capability but need to learn some data discipline. The rest are following the argument, but not moving yet.”
Incentive needed
The figure shows the universal management zones that result from Niagara College’s yield probability index (YPI) algorithm. The zones are the result of stacking a set of historical yield maps while asking “which cells in the yield maps overperformed the average this year?” The colours represent overlapping areas of where the crop performed well. The red areas are where the crop never overperformed the average, and the green areas are where the crop always overperformed the average. January 2016
Karon Tracey-Cowan is a precision agriculture specialist with 20 years’ experience through her company AgTech GIS, which works with agronomists and growers throughout Ontario. This perspective has given her a clear view of what’s happening on the ground, and she says growers are ahead of industry on this one. “I don’t think farmers are getting the credit they deserve for the work they’ve done,” Tracey-Cowan said. “The truth is the vast majority of growers in Ontario has used precision agriculture on their operation in some form.” She said those applications can take every form from a full effort to collect and use all available data, to more casual observations that the local agri-retailer can use to make a variable-rate fertility application. Continued on page 34 country-guide.ca 33
Continued from page 33 Most of the top growers are really starting to take advantage of the more practical applications available. “Variable-rate (fertility) applications have been around for a while, and we’re starting to see a move towards variablerate planting applications,” TraceyCowan said. “That uses the technology to plant different, and better-adapted, varieties to different zones in the field.” Tracey-Cowan says the key to adoption of this technology is for farmers to see a distinct and undeniable benefit. While there’s plenty of interest in so-called “big data” throughout the industry, growers are skeptical how much it will benefit them. That boils down to exactly what farmers are getting in return for the data. Right now they can submit it to thirdparty service providers and in exchange get data-management services and field maps that detail the information and perhaps provide management recommendations. The information is interesting, but the real value is accruing behind the scenes, Tracey-Cowan says. That’s because the available data is getting bigger and bigger each year, and harder and harder to manage. Companies are rushing to fill this gap, hoping to gather as much data as possible, including seeding and yield maps, as-applied maps for in-season applications, and so forth. Most of them are clearly hoping to use the data for their own commercial purposes, Tracey-Cowan said. “If I look at the current situation, I would have to say that the majority of benefits is going to be for the companies, not the growers. I think farmers understand that, and have therefore been a bit reluctant to get involved.”
Value proposition One player on the leading edge of digital farming says he’s not concerned that growers won’t be willing to share their data, because there are plenty of examples of models that work. Chris Paterson cut his digital teeth with Agri-Trend and its later spinoff, Agri-Data Solution. Since last spring he’s been with Bayer Canada as its digital farming lead. He points out the Internet is full of examples of people who will willingly share their information with a web service — if they’re convinced they’re getting enough in exchange. “People decide every day to share their data — if you use Facebook, for 34 country-guide.ca
“ If I look at the current situation, I would have to say that the majority of benefits is going to be for the companies, not the growers. I think farmers understand that, and have therefore been a bit reluctant to get involved.” — Karon Tracey-Cowan, AgTech GIS example, you’re sharing your data,” Paterson said. “I don’t think farmers are all that different — if they’re given a proposition that looks like it returns enough value to them to make it worth their while, I think they’ll share their data.” It’s exactly what that value proposition will look like that people like Paterson are currently puzzling out, and if history is any guide, it will likely be a bit of a work in progress over the next few years. Perhaps the best analogy is the Internet, and particularly social media. One of the earliest attempts was a site called Myspace, which in many ways was an early version of Facebook. It was really popular for a time, but eventually it lost out to Facebook and these days it’s barely a blip on the map. Precision agriculture could see a similar pattern, with some companies falling by the wayside before one takes a dominant position. The business is attracting some big players, including large ag companies like Bayer and Monsanto. But precision ag is also attracting big bucks from outside the sector. The Wall Street Journal recently reported venture capital firms more accustomed to digital plays are funnelling funds into innovative high-tech agricultural ventures to the tune of nearly half a billion dollars in 2014 alone. One lawyerinvestor with a long track record of success describes agriculture as “(T)he last frontier for a lot of different technologies.” Silicon Valley has looked at agriculture and thinks precision agriculture and data collection is an untapped resource to drive efficiency and innovation as it has in other sectors. What remains to be seen is whether it’s going to be a game changer on the scale these investors think it will — and if farmers will sign on and start sharing.
Local touch While there’s little doubt Silicon Valley players bring big data-management skills to the table, it’s less certain they
truly understand the business they’re setting out to transform. That might work against them and in favour of another group that’s getting overlooked — the local agronomist, says Tracey-Cowan. This group knows the business, knows the local customer base, and can custom tailor solutions that work for local growers, based on their intimate understanding of how crops are produced in the field under local conditions. “The truth is, you can hire data management and analysis almost anywhere — it’s becoming increasingly commonplace,” Tracey-Cowan said. “What is much harder to find is the understanding of agronomics and agriculture as an industry. In Ontario, it’s at this level that I’m seeing some of the most interesting work.” In many cases the retailers are collecting the data and managing it for growers, and building a deeper understanding of crop production in their own local areas, she said. They’re able to perform some of the benchmarking comparisons among growers to find the optimal combination of, say, fungicide applications and timing in the wet climate of the Red River Valley or the ideal ground speed for a sprayer rig when applying that fungicide. “I really do see this as the most likely spot that real workable advances are going to come out of,” TraceyCowan said. “It will be local retailers and agronomists, in partnership with their customers.” Tracey-Cowan also added that the value of the established relationship between farmer and supplier is likely going to mean something. In a local market, suppliers very quickly develop reputations, both good and bad. The good ones stick around, few of the bad ones survive for long, and it doesn’t take long for everyone farming in an area to hear about it. CG January 2016
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By Lee Hart ⁄⁄ Field Editor
Lessons from the last crop It pays to do some ‘regressive analysis’ to see if some practice or treatment helped a crop excel even under adverse conditions ield results aren’t necessarily the end of the story, says a longtime western Canadian agrologist who recommends farmers get more scientific about how they use those yield numbers as a reference point for examining the past season, and for planning the next year. Increasingly, data analysis will drive crop production, says Rob Saik, who founded Agri-Trend Agrology of Red Deer, Alta. some 17 years ago. In mid-November, Trimble bought Agri-Trend, which operates a network of independent ag consultants and “coaches” across North America. Farmers keep production records from the year, and many also collect yield data at harvest. Now, says Saik, it pays to do some “regressive analysis” of that information to see if some practice or treatment helped the crop excel even under adverse conditions. “Whether it was surprising or disappointing or what was expected, have a look at the production practices and the growing conditions of the past season to see what actually contributed to that yield,” says Saik. “In a lot of cases in 2015, yields were better than many had expected — look back and find out what made the difference.”
“ In a lot of cases in 2015 yields were better than many had expected — look back and find out what made the difference.” — Rob Saik
SOIL TEST FOUNDATION Heading toward the new crop year, Saik emphasizes the importance of basing plans on a proper soil test analysis. The western Canadian network of Agri-Trend agrologists routinely collects soil samples from zero to six inches, six to 12 inches and 12 to 24 inches in depth. “The multiple depth analysis is particularly important when you are tracking mobile nutrients such as nitrogen,” says Saik. “It is important to know what nutrient levels are in the soil and where they are.” 36 country-guide.ca
Saik says he recently spoke to one farmer who was planning to seed peas on one field until he looked at the soil test analysis. “That field had such high levels of residual N, that farmer felt he would be crazy to put a nitrogen-fixing crop on that field,” says Saik. “So he put another crop on that field, and reduced the amount of added nitrogen that year. The peas could be planted elsewhere, where they would have more benefit.” It’s knowing that kind of information and making those decisions that can save farmers hundreds and thousands of dollars. It all stems from soil tests.
OTHER INDICATORS Another vital piece of information Agri-Trend is now extracting from soil test samples is a measure of available soil moisture for next year’s crop. Saik says soil samples are collected in the fall and immediately sampled for moisture along with nutrient and organic matter levels. “Fall rains and snowfall can make some change in soil moisture levels over winter,” he says. “But getting that reading when the sample is taken can help farmers in their crop planning for the coming year.” For most crops you need a minimum of four to five inches of soil moisture to build the crop on, he says. With a moisture analysis you get a good idea of what potential the crop will start with at seeding, and then you can plan accordingly. Saik also says a plant tissue analysis taken in season is another useful tool for not only determining the nutrient status of the growing crop, but in evaluating the overall fertility program. “The tissue sample will tell you where the nutrient levels of the crop are at the moment,” says Saik. “And depending on the reading, some corrective action may be taken.” However, the bigger benefit may come next year. Knowing if the fertility program you followed is meeting the crop’s needs this year will also tell you how you can change the fertility program to better meet the needs of the crop the following season. Saik says some exciting evaluation tools being developed will expand the range of precision agriculture. So rather than precision agriculture just helping direct variable-rate applications of crop inputs, Saik says the technology also has potential to measure the efficacy of products and treatments over field zones as well. CG Lee Hart is a field editor for Grainews in Calgary, and an occasional contributor to Country Guide magazine. January 2016
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By Julienne Isaacs
So you’ve got a drone — now what? Until drone technology gets a lot more user friendly, farmers may want to leave it in the hands of agronomists Drone technology is sold in packages, and the most advanced ones have software that can layer drone data with other precision agriculture data, delivering prescription maps to producers. But has drone technology advanced to the point where growers are actually addressing crop-health problems before it’s too late? Agronomists say it hasn’t — not because producers don’t know how to use the technology, but because they don’t have enough hours in the day.
It takes time “Time is the biggest issue,” says Warren Genik, director of technology for Green Aero Tech/AgSky Technologies Inc., a Manitoba-based data consultant that offers custom unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imaging and processing. “The reality is that it only takes us about 20 to 30 minutes to image a quarter section, but then it takes three or four more hours of processing before you get a report. So that’s where the time involvement comes in.” Genik’s company uses near-infrared and other cameras to offer UAV surveying and crop-monitoring services, plus elevation mapping to spot drainage issues. AgSky’s advanced technologies mean that under the right conditions, the company can fly a farmer’s entire operation and process the data overnight, Continued on page 40
Photos: AgSky
hances are, you’ve got a drone — maybe it’s a Parrot AR you picked up for $100 at Walmart. Possibly it’s a $1,500 DJI Phantom 3 that takes great aerial photos. Or maybe you’re one of the few western Canadian producers who’s purchased an NDVI-capable drone that takes orthomosaic images that can be layered in with variable-rate data to help you make spraying decisions. If you’ve got a drone, you probably already know whether it’s worth your time. And chances are, it isn’t — at least not yet. “I sell drones, but I haven’t sold a grower a mapping drone yet because in most cases it doesn’t make sense,” says Greg Adelman, an independent agronomy consultant for 70,000 acres northwest of Regina. “They spend so much time in the sprayer and on the farm already, do they really want to bite off this job too? “Drones are probably most useful just for small applications — there’s not enough time in the day to do the work we need with drone technology,” he says. The industry has seen plenty of hype about drones over the last several months — Fortune magazine even called 2015 “the year agricultural drones take off.” It makes sense: as western Canadian operations increase in size, scouting becomes almost impossible without eyes in the sky.
The industry has seen plenty of hype about drones over the last several months — Fortune magazine even called 2015 “the year agricultural drones take off.”
38 country-guide.ca
A sample of an NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) image that can be produced from a drone flyover.
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Continued from page 38 delivering a next-day report in time for farmers to make spraying and other crop-health decisions. “We’ve been able to do some very significant savings for farmers based on that crop-health imaging, but we think outside the box with it,” says Genik. “It’s publicized that drones are about crop health, but there are a huge number of other potential uses for drones in agriculture that people haven’t really explored. That’s why we’ve focused on drainage issues, where we can make a difference for a lot of farmers.” While farmers probably don’t have time to do much with drones, they can be a powerful addition to agronomists’ surveying tool box.
More than toys According to Wade Barnes, president of the variable rate and precision farming consultancy Farmers Edge, drone technology has not yet advanced to the point where it makes sense for mainstream agriculture. “We see drones as a huge opportunity, but farms are significantly large, there are lots of moving parts,
and we see adding a drone as your primary source of data collection as a recipe for disaster,” he says. Farmers Edge has made strategic investments in drone technology — the company is currently engaged in a research and development project with DJI, the largest drone manufacturer in the world. Barnes says Farmers Edge has a unique vision for how drones will play into ag operations in the future. “Our view of where it’s going doesn’t match where a lot of other people see it going,” he says. “People fall in love with drones because they’re cool and interesting, but if you ask a farmer who’s bought a drone, I bet 95 per cent will say they really don’t use it in the way they thought they’d use it. They just don’t have the time. We see drones as a tool that will fit into an agronomy program to make things more efficient in the future.” Barnes says many people point to a shortage of farm labour as a major issue in the next 15 to 20 years, but a shortage of professional farm agronomists is an equal concern. With fewer and fewer people in the field, agronomists’ skills — and new technology — will have to evolve with the times. And drone technology will be key in helping agronomists cover that ground on farmers’ behalf. “Today, a big farm is 20,000 acres versus 2,000 when I got out of school,” says Barnes. “The agronomy model will have to change. To have a drone get out there and get that information and send it to the agronomist — that will be so important.”
“ We see drones as a huge opportunity, but farms are significantly large, there are lots of moving parts, and we see adding a drone as your primary source of data collection as a recipe for — Wade Barnes disaster.” 40 country-guide.ca
Sterling Cripps, a commercial pilot and president of Canadian Unmanned, a company that specializes in small drone training for commercial and civil operators, says that many farmers have participated in his training program. “They’re finding that the data is very worthwhile — it’s easy to collect and process once they have the knowledge to do that,” he says. “But they’re having problems with scope and the size of the land they need to cover — they’re doing small parcels of land at a time. That seems to be the biggest problem — you can only take small bites out of the apple.” Currently, drone use is regulated to “line of sight,” which means that for small drones, only repeated flights can gather data for a large operation. “It’s a safety concern for people on the ground and general aviation that’s in the air. The problem is that when you’re flying a drone it can’t sense and avoid another aircraft in the area. Five or 10 kilometres away, you can’t see your drone,” Cripps says. He calls sense-and-avoid capability “the biggest nut to crack” in the industry. Until drones can sense and avoid other aircraft, drone users are restricted to line of sight. For now, farmers will have to decide whether drones are worth their time. “What I always say is that it’s not about the drone, it’s about the data,” says Genik. “It can be flashy equipment flying in the field but if it’s not telling you something you need to know, what good is it?” CG January 2016
Photo: Victoria anne photography
What’s next?
By Gord Gilmour ⁄⁄ Associate editor
Big data? Not yet Precision agriculture proponents are convinced that the technology will pay off, but that data collection needs to be standardized and not require farmers’ time during the busy seasons atching over the fencerow to see how the neighbour is growing that nice crop is a long tradition in farming. Are we heading into an era where you can look over the digital fencerow to look at the neighbour’s data on nutrient placement, seeding rates, variety selection and combine speed? Increasingly each piece of equipment in the field has data-gathering capabilities. Combined with evercheaper computing power, there’s the prospect for “big data” to make big strides in farm productivity. It’s a strategy that’s worked in a lot of other industries. For example, manufacturers use data collected about the vibrations of their packaging machines to predict when they will fail, thus avoiding lengthy downtime. Others use data to reveal hidden associations that can equal market opportunities, or great efficiencies that can lower cost and increase profitability. But getting to big data is, first and foremost going to require a commitment to small data — the data collected at the farm level. Unless growers gather it and manage it correctly, we’ll never get there, says one Ontario grower who’s been working with the technology for years. Rick Willemse, who farms near Parkhill, says he’s always understood his data would have value to his farm, even if he couldn’t necessarily get the full benefit of it now. Initially he used it to set up production zones and capture yield data to prove one way or another whether those efforts were paying off. “It’s important because I need to know what’s happening in my fields,” he told Country Guide. “But it hasn’t always been easy, especially not in the early days — I spent a lot of time sitting in the headlands of my fields setting the jobs up.” Each field operation is a “job,” and each gathers data. When Willemse is sowing the crop, for example, he’s gathering data that includes the as-applied information on all his spring inputs. Then when he does in-field operations he gathers the same sort of information for weed control and fungicides. At harvest time, his yield monitor tracks how yield varies throughout his field. At the end of the season he’s left with a complete picture of every operation in each of his fields, and the ability to see January 2016
what worked and what didn’t — in raw data form. He keeps this information because it gives him that clear picture — but he’s hoping eventually to take it one step further and really up his crop-management game. The question remains, however — when will the reality catch up to the potential?
Not yet One almost gets the impression Mike Duncan is tired of answering the questions. What’s “big data” mean for agriculture? And when will it really take off? Not because he’s uninterested in the topic — Duncan is a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) research chair holder at Ontario’s Niagara College who has spent the past 10 years working on precision agriculture. Rather, he’s a bit weary of having to explain how far the business still has to come, beginning with even the most basic of concepts like what big data is, and accepting that agriculture isn’t even close yet. “We’re not really truly talking about big data; not like most people talk about big data,” Duncan explained. “If you want to see big data, go to the Interac banking centre. It’s a bunker in London (Ontario) and you can sit there and watch millions of transactions flow in every hour. That’s big data, and we don’t have anything even close to that.” The problem, Duncan explains, is that in the case of Interac and other big business endeavours, there’s a significant amount of data discipline. Standards are set for calibration, collection, management and analysis. As a result, reasonably clearcut conclusions can be drawn. In agriculture you’re dealing with a lot of independent operators with varying views on the importance of data collection and varying methods of collecting the information. “How often is the average yield monitor calibrated, for example?” Duncan said. “If you want really good data, it should be calibrated before you start every field. I doubt that will happen and I bet that most yield monitors aren’t even calibrated once a season.” Then there’s the question of cleaning up the inevitable statistical noise that’s going to be present in the reams of data that will be collected. For example, data cells sometimes just don’t add up — a Continued on page 42 country-guide.ca 41
“How often is the average yield monitor calibrated, for example? If you want really good data, it should be calibrated before you start every field. I doubt that will happen and I bet that most yield monitors aren’t even calibrated once a season.” — Mike Duncan, Niagara College
Continued from page 41 cell that says corn yielded a bushel to the acre might be right beside one that says the same field just yielded 2,000 bushels an acre. “If you want to be able to really use this data, and have it be meaningful, you’ve got to clean it up and remove those outliers,” Duncan said. That’s going to take a lot of time and effort, however, and so far nobody seems to be doing it. Certainly the farmers who are collecting it aren’t likely to do this, because they’ve already got a lot on their plate and most find even capturing the data to be time consuming enough that most of them don’t do it, Duncan said. “I can understand why they’re making that decision,” Duncan said. “When you think about it, why should they? What we’re telling them is, ‘go to the time, trouble and expense of collecting all this data, and we promise, eventually it will be worth something.’”
Big potential Wally Orr thinks data management will be key to successfully running a really big operation. “I can see a time when this data forms part of the value of your land when you go to sell it,” Orr told Guide during a short break from fixing a combine on his Pilot Mound, Man.-area operation. He said his affinity for gathering the data initially began with the desire to show “proof of concept” for the rest of his precision agriculture program, including his variable-rate applications. Doing so helped prove to his own satisfaction, that the time and trouble were more than worth it. “I am 100 per cent sold on variable rate,” Orr said. “In fact, if the satellites go down while I’m seeding, I’ll sit in the 42 country-guide.ca
field until they’re up again. It no longer makes any sense to me at all to seed a crop without that data and prescription.” There’s not quite such a direct benefit to other applications just yet, but Orr says he’s staying the data-collection course for a couple of reasons. First and most importantly, he thinks the data will eventually have just as much value as the variable-rate prescription data he’s using now, and his experience to date suggests that could add up to something pretty significant. And secondly, he’s enjoying the process. “I downsized my farm a bit recently,” Orr explained. “I joke that I have a small farm run by an old farmer. Things like this keep your mind active and it’s a very interesting concept.” Orr’s precision agriculture consultant says he’s on the right track and, like any major transition, it’s going to take some time and there will be a learning curve involved. Wade Barnes, one of the founding partners in precision agriculture consultancy Farmers Edge, got his start as an agronomist in Pilot Mound and has worked a lot with Orr over the years. Barnes says he can understand why farmers are concerned about data integrity and wanting to make sure they’re getting fair value for sharing their data — but ultimately he’s hoping they’ll come to realize it’s in their own best interest to move in this direction. “I am absolutely convinced this is the next big thing in crop production,” Barnes said. “It will have an impact that’s just as profound as the Green Revolution and the GMO revolution.”
Why share? Barnes says the value of the looming revolution will only be realized if the system to collect the data is seam-
less and effortless for growers. The last thing anyone wants to worry about in the middle of a busy season is swapping USB sticks and uploading data to a PC in the farm office. “You really need it to be automatic and self-maintaining for the grower,” Barnes said. “You need to be able to store that data until the machine hits the yard, for example, and sniffs out a WiFi connection, and then automatically uploads it to the Cloud where it can be stored and processed.” Barnes says that in an ideal world growers could forget about the data until they had the time and inclination to delve into it during the off season. A good service provider — and Barnes admits he hopes his company will become the preferred supplier to growers — would then have the opportunity to show them what the system could do, including data analysis, benchmarking with similar farms and perhaps even management recommendations. He says only by amalgamating their data will farmers be able to truly harness the potential benefits. “What I tell farmers is, ‘Don’t hoard your data. Share it,’” Barnes said. “By sharing it you’re not going to be giving yourself a smaller slice of the pie. You’re going to help increase the overall size of the pie and you’ll all make more money.” He says getting a better handle on what’s actually working and not working will give growers a much better basis for decision-making. “Do you really want to be making decisions that cost you this much just on your gut instinct?” Barnes said. “A lot of farmers do really well at that, but I think if you give those same growers better information, they’ll make even better decisions.” CG January 2016
By Jay Whetter ⁄⁄ Canola Council of Canada
The great canola yield rebound of 2015 Canola yield outlook went from sub 30 bu./ac. in June and July to an average in the high 30s by harvest. How did that happen?
Before and after. Many canola fields in Saskatchewan and Alberta looked this bad or worse in June 2015, but by harvest had filled out. This field yielded 55 bu./ac. Photo: Clint Jurke
t was Shawn Senko, CCC agronomy specialist for northwest Saskatchewan, who said on our June 9 Canola Watch conference call, “Canola crops are knee-high, but that’s only because we’re down on our knees praying for rain.” Agronomists at the time talked of thin canola. Crops looked so pathetic, Canola Watch ran an article June 10 called “Top 10 reasons for patchy emergence.” Dry topsoil was top of the list. Lack of moisture hammered production estimates, with an outlook of 13 million to 14 million tonnes based on yields of 30 bu./ac. considered optimistic. Even as rains returned in July, forecasts remained fairly low. Statistics Canada’s Aug. 21 report, based on late-July grower surveys, had total canola production at 13.3 million tonnes. Alberta’s average yield outlook was 29.4 bu./ac., down 21.6 per cent from 2014. Saskatchewan’s was 28.4 bu./ ac., down 12.1 per cent. (Manitoba, where conditions had been better, was looking at a yield increase over 2014.) But by harvest, the situation for many growers had completely reversed. StatsCan shocked the industry in December with its estimate at 17.2 million tonnes, Canada’s second-biggest crop on record. Final yield estimates were 36.5 bu./ac. for Saskatchewan, 39.7 for Alberta and 40.3 for Manitoba. “Many growers in my area of central Alberta ended up with record yields,” reports Keith Gabert, CCC agronomy specialist for central Alberta south. Growers, he says, were shocked, asking themselves, “How did I end up with 65 bu./ac. in a year when I would have been happy with 38?”
44 country-guide.ca
Six key factors contributed 1. Rain. This is the obvious one. Weather maps show precipitation across huge parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan and northwest Manitoba at less than 40 per cent of average for May and June. Add in the areas at 40 to 60 per cent of average, and most of the canola growing region is accounted for. Farms were lucky if they had more than an inch of rain in June. Then July brought relief for many regions. (Not all, unfortunately, but enough to change the tune for Canada’s canola crop.) 2. The nature of canola. Canola is relatively efficient at recycling and reusing nutrients from older parts of the plant that may have dried up prematurely. Canola pods also contain chloroplasts and have capacity for photosynthesis, which can contribute to yield when other parts of the plant have been stressed earlier in the year. And most importantly, canola is a semi-determinate plant type, which means it can continue to branch out even when parts of the plant are already filling seeds or are nearing maturity. Canola fits into the middle ground between indeterminate plants that continue to grow vegetatively even while they produce seed, and determinate plants which have a period of vegetative growth that abruptly switches to reproductive growth. Canola is not an indeterminate perennial, but it can keep producing new growing points throughout the season. Plants that survived the drought could respond to improved conditions by growing more branches and thus more flowers, pods and seed.
January 2016
Yield rebound While wheat is determinate, it too has a fair bit of plasticity in tiller numbers, seeds per spike and kernel weight, says Pierre Hucl, a breeder at the University of Saskatchewan. But wheat is not as well suited to a full recovery. “If you have a June and July with 10 per cent to 20 per cent of normal precipitation as we did in 2015 around Saskatoon, crops start running out of time to recover. In the case of a cereal plant, that late rain typically means a new flush of tillers and a crop with two stages of maturity and all the quality issues that might arise,” Hucl says. “It basically restarts from scratch.” Whereas canola keeps on branching and flowering. Sally Vail, research scientist in oilseed breeding at AAFC in Saskatoon, says, “If there is a combination of resources — water, nutrients and heat — available for growth and the canola plants have not reached their reproductive capacity, canola plants keep on growing and flowering.” Vail adds that co-operative fall weather is important to bring these late branches to maturity. “We were lucky across the Prairies this fall as conditions allowed for continuation of seed filling. An untimely frost could have literally frozen this process.” 3. A long fall. Many areas did not get a killing frost in September, potentially adding several million tonnes to Canada’s canola production number for 2015. That long fall was essential to allow late secondary and tertiary branches as well as the many reseeded crops to reach maturity. 4. Improved genetics. Modern, more vigorous canola hybrids are better able to hang on and then respond when conditions improve, says Murray Hartman, oilseed extension specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. “Genetic improvements have probably allowed for better growth in poor conditions,” he says. “Hybrids are better able to tolerate stress, and to recover and compensate.” 5. Low levels of disease. Dry conditions in the first half of the season meant blackleg, clubroot and sclerotinia stem rot levels were generally very low in Alberta and Saskatchewan. In Saskatchewan, for example, sclerotinia stem rot cost growers about eight bu./ac. in lost yield in 2014, but only three bu./ac. in 2015. The CCC recommended this year not to spray for sclerotinia in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and most growers didn’t spray — which further improved the profit situation. 6. Good agronomy. Through CCC agronomy specialists and other sources, growers were reminded that stands of only two plants per square foot can usually outprofit a reseeded crop. While a million or more acres were reseeded — with good results in many cases — crops not reseeded often recovered fairly well once the weather turned positive. Advice on making sure to protect thin crops from flea beetles and weed competition, and how to manage uneven crops all season long, helped protect the plants that were there. And finally, encouraging growers to hold off on swathing until at least 50 to 60 per cent seed colour change on the main stem meant more seeds in the side branches matured and contributed to yield.
Next year may be different As part of the agronomy message, growers are reminded this winter that planning for 2016 based on what worked in 2015 is probably not a good idea. Best practices did not necessarily produce the best results in 2015. “Thin crops with room to branch out took advantage of late moisture and maybe even deep nitrogen to fill in, finish flowering and maximize seed size,” Gabert says, and these low-population stands produced the above-average yields that surprised growers. January 2016
These maps showing monthly percentage of normal precipitation illustrate how the Prairie moisture situation improved over the growing season. Normally a thin stand or late-seeded crop would not outyield a well-established early stand. As Hartman says, “Forget about what worked well this year because the other nine years in 10, something’s going to happen to make these thin and later-seeded crops yield less.” Gabert cuts the odds even further. “I’d hope the experience in 2015 is more like a one-year-in-20 scenario.” CG Jay Whetter is communications manager and Canola Watch editor with the Canola Council of Canada. For a link to a video with Murray Hartman explaining why 2015 experiences should not change best practices, search for the article “What saved 2015?” at www.canolawatch.org. country-guide.ca 45
By Ellen Goodman ⁄⁄ Cigi
The difference between noodles and pasta Noodles are usually made from common wheat, while pasta is mainly made with durum oodles and pasta are common food products that people often think are the same thing, but beneath the surface there is a lot that differentiates them, says a technical staff member at Cigi (Canadian International Grains Institute). “Visitors to Cigi’s processing facilities frequently ask what is the difference between them,” says Kasia Kaminska, technician in Asian products and extrusion technology. “Even in industry, some people may not know. For example, if you’re milling flour and not aware of what end product it is used for, you may just assume that pasta and noodles are one and the same.”
Pasta involves mixing durum semolina with water to form a stiff dough which is then extruded through a mould or die.
Noodles and pasta differ primarily because of their ingredients and the type of processing involved, Kaminska says. Noodles are usually made with flour milled from common wheat. Pasta is processed from durum semolina, which is coarser than typical flour. However, that difference is not always so cut and dried. “In some markets, processors will use common wheat for pasta because durum is so expensive,” says Kaminska. “But in a higher-end market such as Italy, there are regulations that require pasta to be made of 100 per cent durum.” 46 country-guide.ca
Also, certain markets such as Japan are starting to use durum in fresh alkaline noodles because they like the yellow colour that the flour provides, she says. There are many formulas for making a variety of Asian noodles, but salt is always a requirement in the production phase. Noodles undergo a “sheeting” process where dough is passed through a series of rollers to produce a flat sheet that is sent through a cutter to produce individual noodle strands. Pasta, on the other hand, involves mixing durum semolina with water to form a stiff dough which is then extruded through a mould or die to create various shapes such as spaghetti, lasagna or macaroni. “Pasta is also often sold as a dry product on the shelf and is usually eaten warm either by boiling or baking it,” Kaminska says. “Noodles can be sold fresh, dried, parboiled, steamed, deep fried — there are so many different ways that they are produced and sold. Also they can be eaten either hot, cold, or in a stir-fry.” Where the difference between the two may be detected is through taste and texture, she says. Quality pasta has an “al dente” texture where it is soft on the outside but firm at its core. “The whole goal for al dente is that for your first bite you want the pasta to break,” says Kaminska. “For noodles, you don’t normally want that, depending on what market you’re in and even what region of Asia. For example, noodle types vastly differ between northern and southern China. They look for degrees of elasticity, firmness, or softness.” As for the taste difference, Asian noodles vary depending on the type of salt used in the formulation and how they are processed, she says. Most dry pasta products have a uniform flavour. “The real identifying factor with pasta is to what extent the al dente texture holds up in cooking and how well sauce adheres to it.” Pasta is also geared towards North American and European markets, while Asian products are more for Asian markets, says Kaminska. “But instant noodles are global. You can go to any country in the world and find them. Even in Italy, known as the pasta capital, in prior years you would never see an instant noodle product on the shelf, but now you’ll find whole sections in the grocery store.” Despite the differences, noodles and pasta undoubtedly share a long history. Their broad appeal to many generations of appetites shows no sign of slowing down well into the future. CG January 2016
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ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW LABEL DIRECTIONS. *For pre-treated seed only. Based on the 2016 published SRP of $49.50 for JumpStart inoculant in a pre-treated bag of canola. 1 bag canola = 10 acres. **163 independent large-plot trials in Canada between 1994 and 2013. Individual results may vary, and performance may vary from location to location and from year to year. This result may not be an indicator of results you may obtain as local growing, soil and weather conditions may vary. Growers should evaluate data from multiple locations and years whenever possible. JumpStart ® and Monsanto BioAg and Design™ are trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC. Monsanto Canada Inc, licensee. © 2015 Monsanto Canada Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. 1403-1 10.15
001403-01 MonsantoBioAg JS Ad_8.125x10.75_CGWCG_Nov10.indd 1
SY4166
For more information, visit useJumpStart.ca
2015-11-05 10:48 AM
business
Deal or no deal
Canadian farm equipment manufacturing got a boost from free trade in 1944. What can we expect from today’s trade agreements?
By Scott Garvey, CG Machinery Editor n the last few years, we’ve heard a lot of passionate political speeches about so-called free trade agreements. It’s a topic that is really more than a century old in this country, going back as far as 1911 when the failed push for “Reciprocity” between Canada and the U.S. made headlines as a hot-button issue.
(l to r) Tom Carroll, inventor of the selfpropelled combine, A.A. Thornbrough, president of MF and Mitchell Sharpe minister of trade and commerce unveil a plaque commemorating 20 years of free trade in farm equipment at the grand opening of Massey Ferguson’s new combine plant in Brantford, Ont., in 1964.
But it wasn’t until 1944 that we made our first free trade agreement with the U.S., and even then, it was strictly for duty-free trade in farm equipment. At the time, there was an urgent need for updated farm machinery on both sides of the border to keep food production up. Wartime demands virtually put a stop to the manufacture of anything other than military material. So the deal met an urgent, shared need at the time, and there hasn’t been any real political wrangling over it since. None of that is quite true of 21st century “freetrade” deals. To start with, they’re political footballs. But equally important, they’re much too complex to be called “free.” “Free trade implies there are no barriers to trade in goods and services or labour mobility,” says Ryan Cardwell, professor in the department of agricultural economics at the University of Manitoba. “We certainly have nothing even closely resembling that. What we’re talking about… is moving toward freer trade.”
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In 1944, North America was all the trading area that many farm equipment manufacturers were interested in, at least in the near term. There was ample demand here to keep order books filled for a long time, and the rest of the world was in turmoil anyway. Today, by contrast, most Canadian farm machinery manufacturers have a global vision, which explains why recent trade agreements like the new Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have caught the attention of manufacturers’ associations. Ron Koslowsky, vice-president of the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, Manitoba, sums up the impact of TPP, saying it will put his manufacturers in a better position to make sales. Because the TPP includes emerging Asian economies, ag equipment companies may be among the most likely to see new opportunities in that region. Adds Koslowsky: “There’s a saying that Europe is Canada’s past, the U.S. is its present, and Asia is its future.” In fact, most global machinery brands have had their eyes on all the emerging world economies, including Asia, where farm mechanization is just beginning and future profit potential is high. Using a trade agreement advantage to help stake a claim on machinery markets in Asia could offer Canadian companies a handsome share of those profits — if they can provide the kind of equipment these countries need, which for most won’t likely be the typical broad-acre machines many Canadian firms currently build. Koslowsky thinks the TPP could give all types of Canadian manufacturers a leg up in that market. But companies will have to step up and take advantage of any opportunities the deal presents. “Vietnam now applies tariffs of up to 20 per cent; Malasia, 30 per cent…,” Koslowsky says. “Over time, those tariffs will come down… (and)… they’ll be hungry (for equipment), because they’re growing like China.” “The challenge is going to be to ensure our companies are aggressive and tackle those opportunities. It doesn’t help if we have a deal and the companies don’t act on it. That’s going to be the next thing But not all manufacturing sectors are fully onside. Think auto parts, for example. “It’s a heated debate,” says Gordon Betcherman, professor in the School of International Development January 2016
business Tariff fraud? and Global Studies at the University of Ottawa. “There are people that argue very strenuously for free trade and people who argue strenuously against it. The truth is somewhere in the middle.” There are also political considerations, partly because politicians sell trade deals as job makers. “Free trade is not about jobs,” Betcherman says. “Even the most doctrinaire advocate of free trade among economists would not argue it creates jobs.” The University of Manitoba’s Cardwell agrees. Most mainstream debate over trade agreements misses the point, he says. With trade deals, it’s actually consumers who are the real winners. “As we listen to political debates and press coverage of trade agreements,” Cardwell says, “it’s painfully frustrating, because it’s always a focus on what will happen to dairy producers or what will happen to cattle ranchers. Of course that’s important. But what’s never brought up are the much, much larger benefits that can fall to consumers because of freer trade.” “I think, as consumers, it would be very hard to argue that we’re not better off,” adds Betcherman. “We can get higher quality products at a cheaper price if we’re not limited in terms of where we can buy them from. But there are a lot of people, industries and communities that can be displaced by freer trade if other people in communities in other countries can do (their jobs or manufacture products) more efficiently.” What determines if an individual sector wins or loses is whether or not it has some kind of comparative advantage. So, do Canadian farm equipment manufacturers have any comparative advantages? Koslowsky thinks so. Their quality and their lean manufacturing management systems should give them an edge — or at least put them on par with those in other developed nations. “On average, the products that are produced here are pretty world class,” Koslowsky says.“They’re pretty sophisticated, right up there with the Americans, Europeans and Japanese. If (Asia) is anything like China, the Chinese were hungry for quality goods and services. They didn’t have those in their own country.” But could those Canadian companies with comparative advantages still conquer world markets without trade agreements? Maybe. But Koslowsky thinks they would face a steep uphill climb by being less price competitive. “If we don’t sign up, everyone else in the agreement (for example) will be able to sell to Vietnam, but Canada will still have that 20 per cent (tariff),” he says. Overall, economists can’t really confirm that trade agreements actually increase the total amount of trade between countries. Even extensive studies of the effects of Canada’s most important such deal, NAFTA, hasn’t led to any firm conclusions. “There’s a long history of debate on whether NAFTA, for example, increased trade between Canada and the U.S.,” notes Cardwell. “A lot of economists have tried to study that. It’s really difficult to attribute changes in trade to NAFTA. There are a bunch of other things that could be going on. The reality is there are a lot of moving parts.” One thing is certain, though. Industry and trade in this country and others involved in the TPP will likely look at least a little different in the future if the agreement comes into force. The losses could be more noticeable than the gains, although perhaps not more significant. Explains Betcherman: “The losers are extremely visible, whereas the industries that create new goods and services are much harder to get your hands around.” CG J a n uar y 2 0 1 6
Today’s polarized political debates about expanded international trade agreements paint them as either a boon to the national economy, certain to create wealth, or as sell-outs that are bound to damage or even destroy us. Political parties each have their own stance on that. A century ago, the arguments in favour of eliminating import tariffs were coming primarily from farmers and consumers. There was a strong belief they were being treated unfairly by industry, which was backed by protectionist government policy. The July 26, 1911, issue of The Grain Growers’ Guide, a predecessor of C ountry G uide , published an extensive editorial that summarized public sentiment. Reading through it was instructive about what defined the issues back then. Several pages were devoted to the “Reciprocity” (free trade) debate of the day. The magazine reflected the opinion, apparently shared by many of its readers, that the free trade between Canada and the U.S. and Commonwealth countries, was not only essential, it This cartoon, which appeared in was also the only moral The Grain Growers’ Guide in 1911, c h o i c e . I t s u g g e s t e d suggested free trade with the U.S. domestic manufacturers and Britain was inevitable. profited unfairly by charging farmers inflated prices for machinery in a protected market. It didn’t pull any punches when criticizing the federal government’s protection for industry. In fact, the article’s title “Tariff Fraud” couldn’t be more blunt. It cited a letter written to the Johnston Democrat, a Pennsylvania newspaper, in which a U.S. engineer railed against the fact he could buy U.S.-built farm machines in Australia for one-third less cost than in Ohio, and the Grain Growers’ Guide claimed that similar unfair pricing existed within Canada as well. “This is what protection does to benefit the farmer,” the editorial says. “Protected manufacturers milk the home market and sell at competitive prices abroad.” It goes on to criticize the then-head of Massey-Harris’ objection to reciprocity: “Sir Melvin Jones, president of the Massey-Harris Co., who has just been knighted by the King on the advice of Sir Wilfred Laurier for his ‘service to the Empire,’ has written as follows to the Canadian Century (another publication), the organ of special privilege: ‘I have read the Canadian Century for some weeks past, and congratulate you upon the articles that have been appearing. They are well written and to the point.’ “Sir Melvin thus strongly favours the protective campaign the Canadian Century has been carrying on.” Ironically, Massey-Ferguson, the company that Massey-Harris would later evolve into, would be one of the primary Canadian companies to benefit greatly from a free trade agreement struck between Canada and the U.S. in 1944, which saw the full removal of import tariffs on farm machinery, allowing free flow of equipment across the 49th parallel. country-guide.ca 49
ame-management
Clear rules for using options By Larry Martin, PhD, Agri-Food Management Excellence
any farmers say hedging is too expensive. However, there is an approach that can provide both relatively cheap price insurance plus an opportunity to enhance revenue. It’s also an approach that creates an opportunity to separate and take advantage of market movement both on commodities and on currency.
Options Buying a futures option is insurance: it gives the buyer the right to buy futures (a Call), or the right to sell futures (a Put), at a particular strike price. Sellers (writers) of options are insurance underwriters; they take buyers’ price risk and charge a premium for doing so, with premiums determined by open auction.
A market example On December 3, 2015, May soybean futures traded at $9.06. This was a strong rally from support two weeks earlier at $8.53½. The question was, should we price some of our stored beans for April/ May delivery? The rally looked like it could go at least as far as substantial overhead resistance at the 38.2 per cent retracement around $9.30. Guys at the coffee shop thought it could go a lot further. On the other hand, other market watchers reminded us that Argentina’s new government was planning to reduce export taxes on beans and corn, giving its farmers incentive to increase production. Also, a huge crop was on the way in Brazil, and the Chinese were slowing their soybean purchases, so the great rally could reverse suddenly and return to the downtrend that paused two weeks earlier. What to do? Pricing might miss much higher prices if the rally continued. But if we didn’t price, we could end up with a disaster.
The insurance aspect Options are commonly used to place a floor under prices while taking advantage of a potential rally. In this example, the at-the-money May $9 Put had a premium of $.344/bu. This is relatively expensive: the premium is almost four per cent of the strike price. If futures were to go down to, say, $7.50, the intrinsic component of the premium would be $1.50, but the risk premium would decline by some or all of $.344. So, at the limit, we would net $8.656. If price rose to $10.50, we would gain $1.44 on the actual soybeans, but could lose the $.344. The resulting $10.156 would be better than locking in 50 country-guide.ca
the soybeans at $9.06, but for, say, two contracts it would mean a cash outlay of $3,440. Would this be the best approach? Two rules give less cash requirement, more potential gain, but less protection. First, look at options near support. Second, premiums below three per cent of the strike price are inexpensive. In this case, the $8.60 Put was close to support and its $.186 premium was 2.2 per cent. With it, if price fell to $7.50, the buyer gains $1.10 on the intrinsic value, but loses $.186 on the risk component, for a net of $8.414. On the other side, if price rose to $10.50, the net is $10.314 and, in either case, the cash outlay of $1,860.
Potential revenue enhancement Many farmers find it difficult to sell on a rising market because they hope prices will keep rising. To make selling easier, buy an out-of-the-money Call near resistance when prices are moving up toward it. Also use the three per cent rule here. In the soybean example, resistance is above $9.30. The $9.40 Call’s premium of $.216 is 2.3 per cent of the strike. With the Call, soybeans can be priced near resistance. If they break through and keep rising, the Call provides some of the additional price. If we price the soybeans at, say, $9.28 on a forward contract, and the price goes on up to $10.50, we have the $9.28 as well as another net $.884 because of the gain from the Call, for a net of $10.164.
Summary This is all about risk management and being clear about your objectives. If your objective is simply to lock in a price on a rising market, then simply define a target and lock in when it’s available. But if your objective is to protect against disaster and take advantage of favourable price movement, then a Put near support gives protection from a change in fundamentals that takes the market below support. They also give more reward on rising prices and require less cash outlay. Buying a Call at resistance in a rally also helps give the discipline to sell at favourable prices. This year’s markets gave several opportunities to do either. Seldom has there been a year like this one that illustrates the importance of exchange rate. Canadian cash prices have held relatively firm because a weak loonie has somewhat offset weak commodity prices. Developing separate trading strategies for the commodity and exchange rate can help manage the risk of both. CG This writer is a principal in Agri-Food Management Excellence www.agrifoodtraining.com. January 2016
SOIL CONSERVATION COUNCIL OF CANADA CONSEIL CANADIEN DE CONSERVATION DES SOLS SOIL CONSERVATION COUNCIL OF CANADA CONSEIL CANADIEN DE CONSERVATION DES SOLS
The face and voice of soil conservation in Canada Le visage et la voix de la conservation des sols au Canada
Summit on Canadian Soil Health Getting the topic of soil health higher in the queue
T
he Soil Conservation Council of Canada (SCCC) wishes to thank all sponsors, speakers and participants at our Summit on Canadian Soil Health held in Calgary on December 1st. From the very start, the message was “the job is not done” in terms of securing the sustainability of Canada’s soil resource. Keynote speaker Dr. David Montgomery made a clear case that we must heed the lessons of past civilizations who failed because they mismanaged their soil. He then pointed out that soil is not lost because we farm but because of how we farm and that soil health is an outcome of soil biological protection.
L-R: Dr. David Montgomery, Dr. David Lobb, Garth Whyte, Tim Nerbas, Shawn McRae, Dr. Denis Angers, Fran Burr, Bill Buckner, Alan Kruszel, Moderator.
Challenge Speaker Fran Burr supported the position that the “job is not done”. She sees the sustainability movement in Canada as a place where soil health and conservation needs to be if a rejuvenation of interest is to happen.
• Building on ancient and recent lessons on soil conservation and health
“Soil degradation is the greatest silent catastrophe facing civilization today.” – Dr. David Montgomery A panel of farmers, scientists and industry leaders contributed their experience and knowledge to begin building the “Path Forward” for Canadian Soil Health. Some of the key elements in building that path will be: • Gaining a better understanding of how to manage soil biota to enhance soil health • Renewal of interest that healthy soils is fundamental to ensuring
info@soilcc.ca
“The Summit got soil health back on the map as a critically important – and too long neglected – dimension of sustainable agriculture.” – Lorne Hepworth, Genome Canada a healthy, productive society
• Highlight all the sources of soil loss and degradation, not just the obvious symptoms like dust storms. • Improving our understanding of the economics of soil health as both motivators and deterrents. • Higher productivity from our soils are required to feed a growing world population. Sustainable production systems including nutrient management systems like 4R will be essential. • Canada is well equipped with a strong science community to develop solutions for new and emerging threats to Canadian soil health. • Managing for soil health has both economic and social benefits to farmers and society, such as carbon storage. • Globally, the United Nations declaration of 2015 as the Year of Soils emphasized Canada’s opportunity to be part of
204-792-2424
www.soilcc.ca
international efforts and partnership opportunities to collaborate on science, solutions and actions to address our needs in soil health and conservation.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR SCCC Soil Health 2020 Alan Kruszel, Vice Chair of the Soil Conservation Council of Canada shared SCCC’s plan for Soil Health 2020. “We see this as an emerging framework that can focus the interest, commitment and the resources of stakeholders on the agricultural landscape. This will provide direction for action in responding to the challenges of the future. It can be the meeting place for science, awareness and action for Soil Health in Canada.” SCCC will be reaching out to stakeholders to seek their help, input and commitment to the ongoing development of Soil Health 2020. To become a part of Soil Health 2020, visit soilcc.ca for more information.
@soilcouncil
business
Getting rich from your data Data protection isn’t just for geeks. If you farm, you’ve got a pile of real dollars at stake. Here’s how. By Gerald Pilger
armers do all they can to protect their crops and livestock from pests, diseases and weather. We insure our buildings and equipment. We adopt marketing strategies to protect against price declines. But if you ask what we do to protect our farm data, you’ll usually get met with a blank stare. That’s not good. Information is an asset. It has real value, and that value is getting bigger A 2014 American Farm Bureau survey found 60 per cent of U.S. farmers now use some precision technology or are inputting farm data into an off-farm company data system. More than half also plan to use even more precision agriculture and data technology in the next couple of years. The reason is simple. Good data increases the farm’s profitability. The AFB survey found farmers who use precision technology have reduced their input costs by an average of 15 per cent while increasing crop yields by an average of 13 per cent. However, the same survey also found that while four out of five farmers believe they own and have control of their data, they don’t know all the ways that companies may be using their data. Nor are they sure what the fallout could be if a company holding their farm data were to be hacked or breached. Yet three-quarters of farmers also told the survey they are already worried that their data could be used for regulatory purposes, or that it could be used by a third party for market-sensitive commercial activities. The survey found farmer’s top three concerns with respect to data were: • Liability — In the case of a data breach, who is liable for my farm data? Can misuse of my data be used against me if not obtained legally? • Usage — How is my data being used? Who is it being shared with? • Privacy — Can my data be traced back to my specific operation? Nor is the playing field static. Monsanto has invested heavily in companies that collect and disseminate farm data. In 2012, it purchased Precision Planting for the company’s seeding software, and in 2013 it paid $930 million for Climate Corp., a company with the tools to crunch large amounts of weather and farm data, so Monsanto will be able to put together information that farmers will purchase for assistance with their planting and cropping plans. “We view this as a platform that is as important 52 country-guide.ca
to Monsanto as the biotech (one),” Climate Corp. vice-president Anthony Osborne said in a May 11, 2014 interview in USA Today. Based on its near $1-billion price tag, Monsanto apparently agrees. Plus, in 2014, Climate Corp. bought Solum, a soil testing service. By linking the three companies, Monsanto hopes to offer reliable planting prescriptions to farmers through its FieldScripts software package. Also in 2014, Deere and Co. entered into a joint venture to create a cloud-based software platform for agriculture retailers and consultants. Then, on November 3, 2015, Monsanto and Deere completed a deal which would see Deere purchasing Precision Planting’s line of equipment from Monsanto while enabling Monsanto to link its Climate Corp. business to the John Deere equipment lineup and be able to access the data that is generated by that equipment. “Monsanto’s Climate division will become the first outside company with which Deere allows its equipment to share data in what the companies called ‘near real-time,’” Nasdaq.com reported. Nor did it end there. One week later, Trimble announced it was acquiring Alberta-based Agri-Trend, the largest network of independent agricultural consultants in North America. According to the Trimble news release, Trimble’s Connected Farm Advisor — a real time field data collection, sharing and management tool — will be integrated with the Agri-Trend Agri-Data platform and its 75 million acres. Trimble did not respond to my request for information on the company’s policy for protecting farmers’ data and whether data will be used for purposes other than the needs of the individual farmer. I also asked if Trimble would share any gathered data (individual or compiled) from farmers with a third party, and what happens to farm data if the farmer stops using Trimble or Agri-Trend services. Again, though, I received no answer. In the U.S., the Farm Bureau foresaw the growing demand for access to farm data by large agricultural corporations. It also believes there is a real risk of farmers’ data being abused. As a result they drafted their “Privacy and Security Principles for Farm Data.” These principles were developed in consultation with farmers and a number of industry partners, and as of last January, 34 companies, ranging from January 2016
BUSINESS equipment manufacturers and seed and chemical companies to data technology companies had endorsed them. It is important to note, however, that these principles are guidelines only and are not legally binding on companies or farmers. They are simply a framework for addressing farm concerns about the security of our data. The principles address ownership of data, permission to collect data, and notification of farmers if their data is being disclosed and used. The principles also give the farmer the choice to opt out or disable data collection as well as ensuring farmers have the right and ability to retrieve and delete data, plus providing full disclosure before a farmer’s data is disclosed or sold to a third party. The complete list of principles as well as the companies which have agreed to the principles can be found at http://www.fb.org/tmp/uploads/Privacy AndSecurityPrinciplesForFarmData.pdf.
FARM DATA VERSUS TRADE SECRETS Businesses rigorously protect their secrets. Now, farm data must be treated as secret too. Analysis of your farm data can show what your break-even price is for each crop you grow. Do you really want your buyers to know this? Data analysis can also show how much you can pay for rent, or how much you can afford to pay for inputs. Detailed production and cost data from farmers, or from your specific farm, would
be a windfall for landlords seeking to maximize rents, or for seed and chemical companies when setting prices for inputs. Nor are they the only ones who could benefit from your data. That information is just as valuable to marketers and speculators, providing them with information on crop supply numbers. AcreValue is a great example of how farm data is being applied for more than
Johannes Heupel farms near Stony Plain, Alta. He has a background in electrical engineering and computer programming. He designed a GPS guidance and mapping system which uses a standard GPS receiver, a Windows-based PC laptop, and his own software. His complete system, including cables and mounting hardware comes in at under $2,000, which is thousands less than name brand
Your input supplier or your landlord could buy your data and calculate exactly what price you can afford for land or sprays just production and farm management practices, and I recommend you check the site out. It uses soil tests, regional cropping data, and satellite photos to identify individual fields across the U.S., and it puts a dollar value per acre on each field in a number of states including Iowa, Indiana, Illinois and Minnesota. It is amazing to see the differences in value of neighbouring fields as a result of soil tests, topography, and crop history. Anyone can go to this website and check out the “value” of an individual field in these four states, and after registering and paying a fee, obtain a detailed report.
THE ALTERNATIVES If you worry about losing control of your farm data, there are a growing number of alternatives to the conventional data information services.
guidance systems. He has sold his system to farmers around the world under the name FarmerGPS. In 2014 he added auto-steer capability to his system. Heupel believes farmers must do more to protect their data. He says he has heard stories of traders trying to purchase the real-time harvest data that modern harvest equipment generates to speculate on grain prices. Technically, the production information needed for such trades is already being generated and shared between the equipment, farmer, equipment manufacturer, and even some farm advisers. The challenge is to limit it to the people who the farmer chooses to share it with. That is where systems like Heupel’s may shine. Rather than transmitting the Continued on page 54
- 2015 Delegate, Jamie Y., Regina, SK
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business Continued from page 53 farm data to a third party, it remains on the incorporated laptop. Heupel also notes there are software differences between equipment lines. This makes sharing of data between equipment brands on farm difficult if not impossible. This then would require a third party to analyze the data before returning the accumulated data to the farmer at a cost. Heupel is currently addressing this issue and has already developed a bridge which allows Lexion and JD equipment to understand and utilize the data generated by each other. Farmobile (www.farmobile.com) is a U.S. farm data technology startup which is also offering farmers an alternative to data collection and storage by the major manufacturers. It provides a plug-in module which constantly monitors machine performance. It offers more monitoring parameters than found on the major equipment lines. Furthermore, all data is encoded in a personalized electronic farm record which only the farmer can access. Most interesting, Farmobile is currently assessing sales opportunities for farm data. In the future, farmers who use Farmobile for data collection may be able to actually sell any or all of their data privately to a third party. At this point, the market value of real-time farm data is unknown, but at least one farmer is involved in the beta testing and believes there is the potential of a solid revenue stream. Farmobile offers its services in Canada and has a number of prairie farmers testing its module. Granular (www.granular.ag) is another technology startup which provides farmers with greater control over their data. It is also focusing on whole farm
management with the data rather than strictly agronomic and production. Granular is also pursuing the marketability of farm data. This is a natural progression given that the CEO of Granular, Sid Gorman, was the lead for strategy and new business development at Nielsen, the global marketing research firm for media and consumer goods. Personally, I am astounded at farmers who are rigidly opposed to the agricultural census of Statistics Canada yet who do not even question what data their equipment is providing to manufacturers and possibly others in real time. Many farmers are still resisting 20th century collection of a mole hill of outdated information while ignoring the mountain of real-time data which their equipment is automatically sharing with private industry. Farmers need to address this issue now! First, farmers need to understand the value of data to their farms, and they need to see why we must protect that data the same way we would protect any other asset. Second, farmers need to realize that farm data also has value to others and could even be used against them, and it must be protected against unauthorized use. Third, we need to agree on ownership and use of our data by any third party before allowing our data to be collected on our behalf. Fourth, if we are unable to reach a data agreement with the company, we need to consider alternatives. This is a rapidly growing field and there are new players entering the industry. Finally, we need to view data as potential saleable product of the farm and see if there is a market for the information. Why are we giving valuable information away when it properly belongs to us, and only to us? CG
Considerations for a Data Contract Dr. Joan Archer, a partner in the food and agri business division of the international law firm Husch Blackwell suggested the following points to consider when drawing up a contract for protecting precision agriculture data; • Who “owns” the data (farmer, landowner, service provider(s))? • Who “owns” collective data? • What types of data are covered (soil, weather, applications, pests, water flows, genetics, etc.)? • What data can and can’t be used, and in what circumstances can data be withheld? • What data can and can’t be used for • Data access — what guarantees are provided? • What data can and can’t be shared and with whom (NDAs, subpoenas and related notice provisions)? • Term and termination rights • What happens to data upon termination? • Can data be transferred?
54 country-guide.ca
• Risks/indemnities — who assumes liability for mistakes, data breach or release, data corruption and error, misuse (like market manipulation) etc.? • Equipment obligations — what is needed to handle data? • Privacy/security protection obligations • Licenses needed for software/who owns software downloads/NDAs associated with software? • Who is responsible for any regulatory/ compliance issues? • Data-stream due diligence obligations — check other agreements • Permissibility of data co-op participation • Who is responsible for obtaining and maintaining records on any certifications, such as UAS pilot certifications? • Trademark licenses • The potential impact of mergers and acquisitions
J anuar y 2 0 1 6
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business
busted flat There’s no major rebound in sight for grain markets, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still take charge of your own fate By Gord Gilmour, CG Associate Editor here’s less and less doubt about it. What we’re currently facing is a global recession in commodities of all types. Right now the world has plenty of potash, copper, oil, gold and grain. Producers of all types have responded to the extremely strong price signals they’ve been receiving lately and have grown their productivity. That’s meant new energy projects producing technology via fracking and renewables, new mines coughing up more metals and minerals, and new plants churning out chemicals. In the global grain market, it’s meant productivity investments, especially in longtime basket cases like the Black Sea area of the former Soviet Union, plus new acres primarily in underutilized areas such as parts of Brazil. Those investments have met the explosion in grain demand, which came primarily from two sources, biofuel mandates and the growing demand from rapidly modernizing countries like China. Now that this demand growth appears to be waning, however, we’re back in an oversupply situation in most global grains, and that’s weighing on prices. Canadian producers have been somewhat shielded from this effect as the Canadian dollar has fallen along with commodity prices — but even so, it’s back to scratching for break-even for these growers, says grain market analyst Errol Anderson from his office in Calgary. “We’re enduring the depths of this commodity crisis right now, there’s no doubt about it,” Anderson told Country Guide during a recent conversation. “It’s a recession in global commodities, and the question is, what will it take to jar them out of it?” For at least the next two to three years, Anderson doesn’t see catalyst in growing demand. All signs point to a slowing global economy, with the key item to watch being the ocean-going container freight 56 country-guide.ca
index. That’s a global transportation index reflecting the cost of shipping across the seas, and while it might seem a bit arcane, it’s definitely a leading indicator to watch for economic recovery or evidence of a slowdown, Anderson says. “Containerized ocean freight rates are basically a signal on the health of the global economy,” Anderson says. “It represents the true demand of goods around the world. As an example, the Shanghai containerized freight index reflecting ocean freight between China and Europe is now 45 per cent below levels seen even during the 2009 financial crisis” That’s not great news for anyone selling grain, or any commodity for that matter. It suggests a slowdown in global demand especially from emerging and commodity-based economies. Until this demand for raw commodities improves, excess productive capacity in economies like China will remain under utilized. It will take a while, maybe years for this demand to improve. Farmers might be tempted to just throw their hands in the air and accept it’s back to the bad old days — but Anderson insists that now, more than ever, farmers need to look at things just a bit differently. Every crisis is also an opportunity, the old wags say, and opportunity just might be knocking again — but it takes the right attitude and marketing skills to find business profitability in an otherwise bearish marketplace. “When times get tough, farmers tend to complain they’re just price-takers, and they have no control over what they’re paid. To an extent that’s true — but to an extent it’s also true of every other business out there,” Anderson says. “A down economy impacts every business regardless of industry. Successful businesses are the ones that come up with a strategy to lock on profits. And a farmer who wants to thrive under these more challenging market conditions needs a plan.” January 2016
business
COUNTRY GUIDE: With all that’s going on these days, how do you know your marketing plan is solid? Errol Anderson: In a lot of ways, that’s going to come down to how a farmer is feeling about their marketing plan as the year rolls on. If you find yourself constantly complaining about cash prices, that’s a pretty good sign that what you’re doing isn’t working. In a way, the world is a big swimming pool and a marketing plan is learning how to swim in it. Once you’ve learned to swim, you just get on with the business of swimming, rather than complain the water is too deep or too cold. Complaining about prices is a sign of marketing weakness, not strength. That’s not to say there won’t be challenges. Life hands us all challenges, farmers and non-farmers alike. What doesn’t work for any of us, however, is an ongoing sense of victimhood. If what you’re doing isn’t working, be prepared to change it, because as they say, doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result can be the definition of business madness. Building a plan isn’t an easy thing. It also isn’t a one-sizefits-all project. This is really building a custom car that you feel comfortable in operating. No two custom cars are alike, but each is the perfect car for its owner because it’s built exactly to his or her specifications. Once you’re done building your plan, it should make you feel comfortable that it meets the needs of your farm business. And once that plan is in place, revisit it regularly. Make sure the goals for this year still make sense. Regular business meetings with everyone who has a financial interest are a perfect time to review and fine tune your marketing plans. It is an evolving process. CG: In your experience, which marketing tools work best for growers? EA: The key is flexibility and diversification. There are a lot of pricing tools out there that offer control and market flexibility. Tied to a marketing plan, these tools can zero in and produce a steady flow of profitable pricing. This avoids that sinking feeling that growers are simply price-takers. Growers can take control of their own pricing destiny. For instance, growers who need cash flow or who need bin space have alternatives to lessen their price risk, meaning they can take advantage of a price rise after the grain has left the bin. They may have to sell grain today, but there are tools available to take advantage of a price rise later in the crop year should it occur. But there are also tools to lock futures or basis levels that may or may not commit to delivery. Sometimes you will want to commit to delivery to ensure physical grain movement. Sometimes it is best not to commit to delivery due to production uncertainty. I feel strongly that a solid marketing plan is a blend between cash contracts and a commodity trading account. They both have their advantages and disadvantages at times. So you need to understand the cash market tools at your disposal from local buyers and how a commodity trading January 2016
account can strengthen your business management. Should you find a broker you’re comfortable with, set up an account so you’re ready to use it if the situation warrants it. Some growers use a trading account depending on basis levels or to avoid making cash grain delivery commitments. If basis levels are attractive, cash contracts stand out. But if basis levels are weak, commodity accounts have a role to manage this. Remember, options don’t commit the grower to physical delivery and there is no risk of margin calls. That can be a bonus at times. But you can’t make physical grain delivery. Be cautious of trading futures outright. Market volatility is not for the faint of heart. Trading futures outright takes discipline to tie it to a plan.
CG: Many producers may be relatively happy about crop they have already priced, but they’re concerned about unpriced grain. Any tips? EA: That’s nothing unusual, though yes, that feeling might be a bit stark this year. But there’s always a point in the crop year where your attention turns to how to market the crop remaining in storage. Two key factors impacting this decision are cash flow Continued on page 58
Trait Stewardship Responsibilities Notice to Farmers Monsanto Company is a member of Excellence Through Stewardship® (ETS). Monsanto products are commercialized in accordance with ETS Product Launch Stewardship Guidance, and in compliance with Monsanto’s Policy for Commercialization of Biotechnology-Derived Plant Products in Commodity Crops. Commercialized products have been approved for import into key export markets with functioning regulatory systems. Any crop or material produced from this product can only be exported to, or used, processed or sold in countries where all necessary regulatory approvals have been granted. It is a violation of national and international law to move material containing biotech traits across boundaries into nations where import is not permitted. Growers should talk to their grain handler or product purchaser to confirm their buying position for this product. Excellence Through Stewardship® is a registered trademark of Excellence Through Stewardship. ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Roundup Ready® crops contain genes that confer tolerance to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides. Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides will kill crops that are not tolerant to glyphosate. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for canola contains the active ingredients difenoconazole, metalaxyl (M and S isomers), fludioxonil and thiamethoxam. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for canola plus Vibrance® is a combination of two separate individually-registered products, which together contain the active ingredients difenoconazole, metalaxyl (M and S isomers), fludioxonil, thiamethoxam, and sedaxane. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for corn (fungicides and insecticide) is a combination of four separate individually-registered products, which together contain the active ingredients metalaxyl, trifloxystrobin, ipconazole, and clothianidin. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for corn (fungicides only) is a combination of three separate individually-registered products, which together contain the active ingredients metalaxyl, trifloxystrobin and ipconazole. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for corn with Poncho®/VoTivo™ (fungicides, insecticide and nematicide) is a combination of five separate individually-registered products, which together contain the active ingredients metalaxyl, trifloxystrobin, ipconazole, clothianidin and Bacillus firmus strain I-1582. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for soybeans (fungicides and insecticide) is a combination of four separate individually registered products, which together contain the active ingredients fluxapyroxad, pyraclostrobin, metalaxyl and imidacloprid. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for soybeans (fungicides only) is a combination of three separate individually registered products, which together contain the active ingredients fluxapyroxad, pyraclostrobin and metalaxyl. Acceleron and Design®, Acceleron®, DEKALB and Design®, DEKALB®, Genuity and Design®, Genuity®, JumpStart®, RIB Complete and Design®, RIB Complete®, Roundup Ready 2 Technology and Design®, Roundup Ready 2 Yield®, Roundup Ready®, Roundup Transorb®, Roundup WeatherMAX®, Roundup®, SmartStax and Design®, SmartStax®, Transorb®, VT Double PRO®, and VT Triple PRO® are registered trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC, Used under license. Vibrance® and Fortenza® are registered trademarks of a Syngenta group company. LibertyLink® and the Water Droplet Design are trademarks of Bayer. Used under license. Herculex® is a registered trademark of Dow AgroSciences LLC. Used under license. Poncho® and Votivo™ are trademarks of Bayer. Used under license. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
country-guide.ca 57
business Continued from page 57 and bin space, and toward the end of the crop year the decision may be, do I sell it this year or next? Here’s where market management and understanding strategies can be helpful for taking control. I’m of the view, that you should move the grain off the farm as quickly as possible and try to move your grain in the same crop year you produce it. Longterm farm storage sometimes pays off, but not often. Most often, you are not paid for the risk of storing grain on farm, to say nothing of the storage issues. Let me use a canola example. Imagine you sell your canola for $10.75 a bushel, which is a reasonable cash price. But you think there’s some potential for El Niño-related market activity and you don’t want to miss that potential upside. So you purchase a call option — let’s say the call premium costs you 25 cents a bushel — that gives you the right to buy that amount of canola at a specified strike price into the future. If prices stay where they are or go down, the call premiums will eventually expire worthless and you’re out the 25-cent-a-bushel premium you’ve paid. But if prices go up, your call option premium increases in value. You can add these gains to the $10.75 a bushel you’ve already got in your pocket. But if canola prices drop to say $9/bu., your call option will expire worthless and you would still net $10.50/bu. on your canola ($10.75/bu. cash sale — 25-cent/bu. loss on the call). On the cash market side, this is where you can really benefit from knowing your local market. What does a good basis look like? Have you shopped your samples around? Make sure you have a bond with your buyers. If there’s a sudden need for product, premiums may appear, and you’ll be on the list to get that call. Farmers need to be salesmen too. You really need to work your local buyers and understand what marketing tools they can provide for your operation.
CG: If we’re likely looking at a prolonged period of softer prices, is it also time to eye new-crop prices? Should grain be priced well ahead of the combine to lock in profits? EA: I’m a fan of forward selling crop, within reason. You should be prepared to sell before you go to the field, by as much as 30 per cent of your expected production if a winter rally occurs, then up to half your expected production may be profitably priced before combines hit the field. Then you know your fall cash flow needs are covered by profitably priced grain. Once you have completed harvest, let’s say you have about 50 per cent of your grain unpriced while you are already starting to look forward to pricing new crop. It’s like turning your marketing decisions about 180 degrees forward. With this thought, a grower may be looking to price both 58 country-guide.ca
“ If you find yourself constantly complaining about cash prices, that’s a pretty good sign that what you’re doing isn’t working.” — Errol Anderson old- and new-crop grain on rallies. Again, knowing your production costs and bill payment schedules will lend a hand in these decisions. Farmers who are prepared and can move quickly when opportunities present themselves are often most successful.
CG: Obviously there are going to be things happening that farmers have no influence over — what are the key global issues to watch over the next while? EA: There’s no doubt there are a number of factors farmers just don’t have control over right now. For example, we don’t really know how the U.S. Federal Reserve policy on interest rates will play out. If it supports further gains in the U.S. dollar, that could further slow exports, including grain. This would impact U.S. prices which will also impact ours. It could trigger further price pressure, at least temporarily. A weaker Canadian dollar should at least partially offset that, but U.S. markets tend to dictate Canadian price direction. Also, China’s economic slowdown has a direct impact on all global commodity prices. This will affect the volume of trade and prices between Canada and China in the months and years ahead. The global currency war which has been generated by central banks’ focus on money printing also has a huge impact on prices, and is also beyond our control. Brazilian farmers are now making more money growing soybeans than ever before because of the collapse of the real currency. This will continue to push South American soybean plantings. And Russia has gained global wheat market share due to the collapse of its ruble. It has been a race to the bottom for currencies as every country wants to gain export competitive advantage. Despite these global issues, however, there will be attractive pricing opportunities. Growers need to be responsive to them. The global commodity downturn impacts everyone, and it definitely heightens the need and value for a disciplined marketing plan that will lock in those profits. CG January 2016
The Canadian Association of Farm Advisors (CAFA) Inc. is a national, non-profit professional umbrella organization dedicated to assisting farm families and businesses by increasing the skills of farm advisors and consultants.
www.cafanet.com
Focus on Farm Women By Michelle Dekens, FarMer, lawyer & caFa MeMBer
I
am pleased to be able to write about an upcoming conference hosted by the Canadian Association of Farm Advisors (CAFA). The Focus on Farm Women conference will be held February 25, 2016 in Guelph, Ontario. It is specifically designed and focused on connecting women involved in farming with farm advisors and discussing topics related to farming. Specifically this year the conference will include discussions regarding what tools are needed to help farmers in their business, what tools are currently available, how advisors can help farm women and the changing roles of women on the farm. Many of you may be asking why would CAFA host a conference specifically focusing on farm women, and how does this help CAFA fulfill its mission, if it is only focusing on farm women and not men? It is often seen that farming is a man’s world and often it appears that conferences, articles and information are male oriented. However, my experience has been that many women involved in farming are just as knowledgeable and interested in farming and have just as much decision-making responsibility (and more in some situations) than any male living on the farm. However, despite this reality, many farm women can
relate to stories of salespersons showing up on the farm and upon meeting a woman asking if “the boss” or the “owner” is home because they immediately assumed that the woman who answered the door is not the primary decision-maker. Further, women often have unique roles to play on the farm and issues related to these. By providing a forum for women to connect with advisors and discuss issues related to farming and related to their roles on the farm, CAFA is able to further its mission of assisting farm businesses by improving the access of farmers and farm families to qualified farm advice. I have been fortunate enough to attend the past two Focus on Farm Women
conferences and plan on attending the next. As a farm advisor and a woman who grew up on a farm, I have truly appreciated the specific focus of these conferences and have enjoyed connecting with farm women, hearing their stories discussing common experiences and learning what issues are important to them. So to all farm women and women farm advisors reading this, I definitely recommend that you consider attending this year’s conference. It will be a day away from the farm or the office and will allow you to connect with other women who share similar stories, learn more about the different tools and resources that are available to you, and will leave you feeling refreshed.
Save the dateS! February 25, 2016: Focus on farm Women, Guelph, Ont. May 18, 2016: Farm Succession Update – 3-Circle Model In-Depth, Ajax, Ont. & via webinar June 2, 2016: Farm Management Update, Woodstock, Ont. & via webinar Fall 2016: Farm Tax Update
More information available at www.cafanet.com/Conferences
Toll free: 1-877-474-2871 Email: info@cafanet.com PO Box 270 • Seven Sisters Falls, MB • R0E 1Y0
Follow us on Twitter @CAFANET
life
Is your farm ‘too family?’ Put the emphasis on business, family experts say. It will reduce conflict for everyone By Helen Lammers-Helps or as long as there have been farmers in Canada, we have pointed with great pride to “The Family Farm.” Maybe, however, we’ve been taking too much pride in the family part of our family farms, and by doing so, we may actually be creating more conflict. Winnipeg business adviser and psychologist Pam Paquet suggests there would be fewer problems if we trained ourselves to think of our farms as farm businesses owned by a family instead of as family farms. Having worked with family businesses for years, Paquet finds that when we put the focus on the family instead of the business, the business often survives, but the family may end up divided, with family members who are no longer on speaking terms. When you add inherent generational differences into the mix, the potential for conflict gets even nastier, adds Paquet. “Family plus money equals trouble,” she says. The problem, Paquet says, is that when we put the focus on family first, we can become lazy communicators and we can also fall into the trap of operating on assumptions. By treating the farm as a legitimate business with policies and proper documentation, however, you can avoid the resentments that build when family members feel they are not being treated fairly. In fact, your first step may be to actually accept that such tensions aren’t inevitable. There are lots of tried and proven tactics for preventing them. For instance, having a job description that details the abilities and skills needed to do a job can help prevent adult children from developing a sense of entitlement and assuming they’re going to take on a certain role just because of their birth order. “Children need to earn their positions,” Paquet says. If you make decisions based on business metrics that are clear to everyone, it avoids the accusations of favouritism that will otherwise swirl in the background. Paquet says we often assume that if a family member doesn’t have the skills needed to do the job, they will simply pick up the necessary skills as they gain experience. This can be a dangerous assumption, however, and the fallout can be serious. If, on the other hand, the farm has clear, written job 60 country-guide.ca
descriptions, then knowledge gaps can be identified and a plan for upgrading skills can be implemented. Having job descriptions also helps those coming into the business to be clear on expectations. For example, if a farming son marries, it shouldn’t be assumed that his spouse will know what needs to be done and have the necessary training to do it. A lack of formal planning is another problem in many family businesses, says Paquet. Business and succession plans are even more important in family businesses, she says. The business plan includes a vision for how the farm will operate, and the succession plan stipulates how the farm will be transferred to the next generation. “Going through the planning process helps you to get it clear in your own head,” says Paquet. “And writing it down kicks up the level of commitment. Talking about it isn’t enough.” The planning process helps family members to see where differences in values and ideas may cause problems with plan implementation. The planning exercise will also clarify the needs, wants and expectations of everyone involved; and with a plan in place there are goals, so progress can be measured. Then, Mom and Dad can also begin to see themselves as the CEOs, says Paquet. Communication is another important piece for harmony in family businesses, says Paquet. There need to be regular and frequent meetings with agendas and minutes, and with all the key players at the table, she says. Those regular meetings should also generate to-do lists with concrete deadlines and measurable expectations, plus clear accountabilities for those who are expected to do the work. For family members not directly involved in the day-to-day operation of the business, three or four board-style meetings can be held each year to keep them up to date on the farm situation, says Paquet. But they must be real meetings. Simply having a conversation over the family dinner table doesn’t count. Elaine Froese, farm family coach from Boissevain, Man. and author of Farming’s In-Law Factor, agrees it’s important to separate family and business. Some families are so enmeshed, there’s no privacy, she explains. Young couples need to be able to do things differently if they want, she says. For example, a son may want to change the routine by spending time January 2016
life with his young children after dinner before heading back out to the barn. Other family members need to respect their family rules, Froese says. Also don’t assume that when a son or daughter marries, the new spouse will be automatically aware of the unwritten codes that exist on the farm, says Froese. For example, the spouse may not be aware of when you’re expected to take vacations, or who is expected to say what to which family members. It can also happen that a mother will have a hard time finding her role in the new dynamic when the son marries. There may need to be negotiation around who performs what jobs. Froese encourages mothers and daughters-in-law to talk about the jobs they do. For example, who is going to do the record-keeping, pay the bills and take meals to the field? Froese recalls a situation where the mother-in-law was picking up groceries for her son and his wife. While her intent was to be helpful, the daughter-in-law felt it was a criticism of the job she was doing. Froese says it would have been
better for the mother-in-law to explain that her intent was to help and to ask for permission. A mother-in-law can be a mentor for the daughter-in-law, says Paquet, who suggests the mother-in-law write a job description for herself then ask the daughter-in-law what role she would like to play. Paquet urges mothers-in-law not to judge or make assumptions. The daughter-in-law may not know how to prepare meals for the field or drive a stick shift. And don’t expect the son to show the daughter-in-law the ropes, she adds. “He has never done that job.” Froese agrees. She encourages women to have open communication, avoid assumptions and to have a learner mindset rather than a judger mindset. “Be gracious, loving, clear about intent and open to change.” Family meetings are a good place to discuss family traditions and where you will spend the holidays. “This can get even more complicated with blended families involving step-parents and stepgrandparents,” says Froese.
Froese also encourages farm family members to have support networks outside of the farm family. “A lot of people who are unhappy are isolated,” she explains. Froese encourages the use of technologies like Skype and Facebook to stay in touch. When tensions increase and communication breaks down, both Paquet and Froese recommend calling in professional help. This should be an objective third party who is not connected to the business, says Paquet. “If a family member tries to step in, usually everyone will end up mad at that person.” Paquet also recommends a mediator or counsellor who has been trained, because family issues on the farm can be complex, and the stakes are high. “Make sure the consultant you hire has the credentials and understands farming,” she suggests. “Ask around for a word-ofmouth referral. Bankers are often in the know.” Some people may balk at the cost of hiring professional help. But, points out Froese, the costs of family collapse can be so much bigger. CG
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country-guide.ca 61
w e at h e r
**
MILDER THAN NORMAL
**
**
Cold y Snow
MILD TO NEAR-NORMAL TEMPERATURES BELOW-NORMAL SNOWFALL
Mild Snowrain tal Coas
Occasional snow / blowing
** **
NEAR-NORMAL TEMPERATURES AND SNOWFALL
ered Scatt w / sno rain
Sc Mild sno atter w / ed rai n
NEAR NORMAL
January 17 to February 20, 2016
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Jan. 17-23: Fair days alternate with rain or wet snow on the coast changing to snow inland. Chance heavy precipitation. Seasonable to mild. Windy at times. Jan. 24-30: Blustery with fluctuating temperatures often trending to the mild side. Fair overall with some coastal rain and scattered snow inland. Jan. 31-Feb. 6: Generally fair with intermittent coastal rain and a chance of snow. Seasonable with mild spells. Changeable inland with scattered snow. Feb. 7-13: Seasonable to occasionally mild. Windy at times. Sunny breaks interchange with rain on the coast and scattered snow or rain elsewhere. Feb. 14-20: Expect a few bright days this week. Scattered rain or showers except snow or rain inland and north. Temperatures average above normal.
ALBERTA Jan. 17-23: Cold air and brisk winds create higher wind chills with a couple of milder days that bring some snow and blowing in the south. Fair and cold in the north. Jan. 24-30: Blustery winds combine with a few cold temperatures to produce higher wind chills. Fair apart from snow and drifting on one or two days in the south. Jan. 31-Feb. 6: Expect a few bright days this week with seasonable to milder temperatures. Scattered snow and drifting in the south on a couple of days. Feb. 7-13: Look for variable temperatures as cold and mild air interchange. Fair skies alternate with intermittent snow. Chance of rain in the south. 62 country-guide.ca
Feb. 14-20: Sunshine and milder with some thawing in the south but a couple of colder, windy days bring snow and patchy rain. Changeable, flurries in the north.
SASKATCHEWAN Jan. 17-23: Fluctuating temperatures with a few windy, colder days and higher wind chills. Brief warming brings snow and blowing to southern regions. Jan. 24-30: Seasonable to occasionally cold with higher wind chills this week. Fair aside from periodic snow and drifting on a couple of days in the south. Jan. 31-Feb. 6: Sunshine and a bit milder in the south on a few days but also expect snow and drifting on one or two days. Fair, flurries and seasonable in the north. Feb. 7-13: Fluctuating temperatures and blustery winds bring variable weather ranging from sunny and mild to colder with snow. Chance of rain in the south. Feb. 14-20: A few bright days. Milder with thawing in the south although one or two colder, windy days result in snow, chance of rain. Variable, flurries in the north.
MANITOBA Jan. 17-23: Variable weather and temperatures. Occasional higher wind chills. A couple of milder days bring snow and blowing to the south. Clear, cold in the north. Jan. 24-30: Seasonable to occasionally cold with higher wind chills. Fair overall aside from a couple of milder days with snow and blowing in the south.
Jan. 31-Feb. 6: A few bright days and slightly milder temperatures interchange with colder air and snow. Blustery with some blowing in the south. Settled, cold in the north. Feb. 7-13: Temperatures fluctuate under occasional windy conditions. Sunny, milder days are interrupted by snow, drifting. Chance of rain in the south. Feb. 14-20: Milder with minor thawing in the south but expect snow, drifting and a chance of rain on a couple of occasions. Changeable, some snow in the north.
January 17 to February 20, 2016 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS Boosted by longer days and El Ni単o, relatively mild temperatures are expected to prevail across most of Canada in this period. In addition, snowfall in many areas of the country should drop below average. In spite of generally mild and dry conditions, however, inclement weather will return from time to time and remind us that winter is not quite over yet. This storminess is apt to be most noticeable in Atlantic Canada where weather disturbances will result in a few heavier snow and rain events.
Prepared by meteorologist Larry Romaniuk of Weatherite Services. Forecasts should be 80 per cent accurate for your area; expect variations by a day or two due to changeable speed of weather systems. January 2016
h e a lt h
The spectre of head lice By Marie Berry
o one wants to get the telephone call from your children’s school telling you that several children have been reported to have head lice. But keep in mind that the phone call only means your child plays with many other children, and that you are not alone. It is estimated that only one to two per cent of the population (including both children and adults) are affected by lice in any one year. While this number appears small, however, head lice infestations do seem to occur in pockets. Outbreaks occur at one location at a time, for example at a school, and within that school population, the infection rate may be significantly higher. Head lice are parasites that feed on human blood. They are scientifically known as Pediculus humanus capitis, and are classified with other types of lice that infest other parts of the body. Lice are about one to three millimetres long with three pairs of legs that end with claws. You can see them with a magnifying glass, but may not notice an infestation until you see their eggs or nits which are about the size of a grain of rice. An adult female louse lives for about 30 days, during which she can lay seven to 10 eggs per day, for a total of 200 to 300 eggs during her lifetime. Because head lice are human parasites, they do not survive long away from the human body, usually up to four days. The first sign of an infestation may be nits along the back and sides of the scalp. The nits attach themselves at the base of the hair shaft, and as the hair grows the nit moves away from the scalp. This means that the farther the nit is away from the scalp, the longer the infestation has been present. Because the lice may spread their saliva and excrement on your skin as they feed, you may notice itching caused by a sensitivity to this debris. Pyrethrin 1% (or Nix) is the most often suggested therapy. It is toxic to both adult lice and nits and is considered to be 70 to 100 per cent effective. A second application is usually recommended after seven to 10 days to treat any nits that may have survived and hatched. Pyrethrin can be used by pregnant women and nursing mothers, but for children less than two months, it is not recommended. Unfortunately, some lice may have developed a resistance to this product. Pyrethrin with piperonyl butoxide (or Rid) is also a pediculicide, but its success rate is only 45 per cent
after the first application, and a second application after seven to 10 days is needed to boost the success rate to about 94 per cent. It targets only the adult lice: thus a second application is always needed for the nits that have hatched. Because both products are related chemically to ragweed and chrysanthemum, people with allergies to these plants need to avoid the two products. Isopropyl myristate cyclomethicone (or Resultz) is another option. It targets the adult lice by dissolving their exoskeleton. It is not recommended for children under two years, and a second application is needed to eradicate any nits that may have hatched. After the second application, it is considered 82 per cent effective. Ideally, treatment should resolve the infestation, although treatment failures are common and may be due to a reinfestation. Clothing and linens should be washed in soap and hot water and machine dried using a “hot” setting. Dry cleaning or storing in plastic bags for five to seven days is an option for non-washable items. Rugs, carpets, couches, and mattresses need to be vacuumed. Nits should be removed from the hair with a finetooth comb; soaking the hair with vinegar for 30 to 60 minutes will make the job easier by helping to dissolve the glue that the nit uses to attach itself to the hair shaft. All household contacts of the child need to be treated in order to avoid reinfestation. You may hear of alternative therapies such as lavender oil, tea tree oil, or even mayonnaise. The idea is that these “smother” the lice. However, no studies show effectiveness. Tea tree oil is also supposed to have antimicrobial and antiseptic properties. However, for lice you need antiparasitic properties. Skin irritation is the most common problem with these products. If resistance is suspected, try switching to another pediculicide, and remember to treat all household members as well as regular visitors to prevent reinfestation. Nit removal by itself or wet combing, if meticulously done, may be successful. You will need a well-lit area and, depending upon the length and thickness of your child’s hair, several hours. Remember too that nit removal needs to be done every three to four days, continuing for seven days after the last nit is seen. If the idea of head lice starts you scratching your head, you’re not alone, but keep in mind you can successfully treat them. You just need to be thorough! Marie Berry is a lawyer/pharmacist interested in health and education.
Eye drops are ideal to treat local conditions of the eye, but your eye drop technique needs to be top notch in order to obtain the most benefit from the drops. Next month, we’ll look at some common eye drops and share some tips on the most effective techniques. Even if you already use eye drops on a regular basis, it’s a good idea to check your technique.
january 2016
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acres
By Leeann Minogue
Time to ask the big question ‘Women are different,’ Ed said. ‘Watch out.’ ale figured he was off the hook when he told Donna to go ahead and hire a cleaning lady. She’d been defensive. “Norma’s got someone coming out to her place,” she’d explained. “So we can split the travel costs if I hire her too.” Dale had never been against the idea, but Donna worked hard to convince him it was a good decision. “We hire out lots of things,” Donna reminded him. “Accounting. Trucking. This isn’t any different.” Sure, it was an extravagance, but the cost for an entire year would be less than half of one combine payment. If Dale could ride around in a tractor with heated and cooling seats, surely Donna could have someone scrub the bathrooms twice a month. And she didn’t have to tell him, Dale knew Donna’s joints were bothering her. He saw her rub her knuckles when she thought he wasn’t looking. Wearing flat shoes. Stashing painkillers in the kitchen. Donna’s mother had arthritis, and Dale had always assumed it was only a matter of time for his wife. Dale didn’t want to force Donna to talk about that, so he was quick to agree with the cleaning lady idea, and made a special effort not to blurt out the first thing that came to his mind: “My mother would have crawled on broken glass to clean the bathrooms before she let a stranger see inside our closets.” He did ask Donna why she hadn’t hired someone years ago, when the kids were small and she was doing all the farm bookkeeping. “Nobody would come!” she said. “Don’t you remember? That woman from Estevan cleaned the house from top to bottom, but then she said she wouldn’t come back — it was too many miles of gravel road. I cried. I actually sat down and cried.” So after the cleaning lady’s visit on Monday, Dale came in from the shop at suppertime, hoping he’d find Donna pleased with her gleaming bathrooms and happy with the world. Dale knew Donna was restless. Last year, she’d 64 country-guide.ca
passed all the responsibility for the farm bookkeeping on to her daughter-in-law. “If Elaine’s going to be part of the farm, she might as well learn what it’s all about,” Donna said. Then Donna had given up her long-term place on the area library board. “It’s about time some younger people had a chance to get involved,” she told Dale. Donna enjoyed spending time with her young grandchildren, and she could have helped her daughter-in-law with her family and farm responsibilities. But, she’d told Dale, “I don’t want to be a meddling mother-in-law.” Donna enjoyed spending time with her female friends. They’d gone to Peru. Spent a weekend in New York. Gone camping. Donna liked travelling, but Dale couldn’t see how that could fill her whole calendar. “I suppose she’s trying to find herself,” was what Dale’s father, Ed, said when Donna bought herself a kayak. “Nobody buys a kayak unless they’re trying to find themselves.” “Maybe,” Dale said. “Is that what you’re doing all winter in Arizona?” “I don’t need to drive all the way to the damn desert to know who I am,” Ed said. “Women, though,” he shook his head. “Women are different. Watch out. When your mother was about the age Donna is now, she got a lot of goofy ideas about moving to town. Watch your step, or Donna will have you living in a condo.” Sure enough, Ed had been on to something. “Gerri and Rick have been looking at houses in that new subdivision in Regina,” Donna told Dale while they ate pork chops with homemade applesauce. “Oh?” Dale said. “Gerri says she really likes the high ceilings in the new places. Like the Jensons’ have in their new place in Weyburn. Or the show homes in that new condo development down in Estevan. Too bad we hadn’t built this place just a couple of feet higher.” “We may have low ceilings, but we sure have shiny bathrooms,” Dale said, wondering if changjanuary 2016
ing the subject might be a way to put this conversation off. “Everything went all right today?” “Sure,” Donna said. “She was very thorough. It’s nice to have all the cobwebs out of the corners. Now I have to figure out how to use all my extra time.” “You don’t have to use it,” Dale said. “We’re at the age where we’re supposed to wind things down. Retire. Not look for new things to do.” He quickly realized this was the wrong thing to say. “Retire? Are you kidding? I’m a few years younger than Hilary Clinton! She’s certainly not retiring!” “You know Canadians can’t be president, right?” Dale asked. Donna fell silent, chewing her lip. Dale knew a normal retirement wasn’t in the cards for Donna. She hadn’t had the kind of career you could retire from. She’d made a life working on the farm, looking after their kids, taking care of family members and volunteering in town. “I’m not sure,” Donna admitted. “I need to do something, but I’m not quite sure what it is.” She paused again; Dale could see she was thinking her answer through carefully. “It’s easier for you. You can just keep on working on the farm until the bitter end. But I need to find a new place for myself.” Dale wasn’t liking the direction this was taking. “Donna,” Dale asked. “Do you want to move to town?” She sighed. “We’ve always been here,” she said. “It’s our life. It’s hard to imagine us somewhere else.” “Especially in a condo,” Dale said. “But we don’t have to stay here. If it’s important to you, we could try someplace else. Maybe for the winter? Jeff and Elaine could probably keep things under control here without me. For a little while, anyway.” “Yes. But…” Donna paused, and Dale could see she wasn’t sure what she wanted to say. “We’ve been here all our lives… If we aren’t tied to this farm, maybe we’ll feel… unmoored. I have this vision of the two of us, floating off into the distance like a couple of untied balloons.” Dale had absolutely no idea how to even begin to answer this. After a pause, Donna started again. “The city might be nice. There’s lots to do,” Donna said. “We could learn to golf. Go to concerts. Gerri and Rick are joining a bridge club.” “We’ve never golfed at the course 20 miles from the farm,” Dale said. “You don’t like concerts. And isn’t bridge for old ladies?” “Maybe I am an old lady,” Donna said. “Dale, I had to hire someone to clean our house. Your mother would have a fit if she was here!” “I wasn’t going to say that,” Dale said, grinning. Donna kept talking. “We’re getting old. If there’s anything we want to do, we have to do it now. Before it’s too late.” “We’ve got lots of time. Look at my dad.” “You’ve got a point,” Donna laughed, thinking of her stubborn father-in-law, refusing to stop running the combine. “Dale, I don’t know what I want to do. Just promise me we don’t have to move into a condo?” “Not yet, anyway.” Leeann Minogue is the editor of Grainews, a playwright and part of a family grain farm in southeastern Saskatchewan. january 2016
“Where are you going Rod?” The first question is inevitably followed by more. “Why are you going there?” “What are you going to do?” Our neighbours, both teachers, have three intelligent, curious children. Tyler, age five, is the oldest. He takes great interest in what adults think and do. He wants to know what is going on, why it is happening and who is involved. I enjoy our discussions. They are less frequent now there is snow on the ground. Like many Canadians, I open my garage door, back my vehicle out, and head off for my daily round of activity. I miss my regular interrogation by Tyler. I wonder what it would be like to ask God questions. Suppose I was able to ask God if he had time for a few questions. He would tell me, “Time does not mean anything to me. I have lots of time for all your questions.” I think my first question would be, “What surprises you most about mankind?” I visualize God answering, “I am constantly surprised that humans get bored of being children, rush to grow up, and then long to be children again.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau answered questions from the press a few minutes after his installation. He stood outside the Governor General’s residence with his new cabinet behind him. A reporter asked if he was thinking about his father during the installation. The newly minted prime minister replied that he was not spending much time thinking about his father but he was thinking about his children and children across Canada. I reflected on messages we might share with children like Ty. Over the holiday season a friend sent me words of advice he has for his children. “I want my children to learn they cannot make anyone love them. What they can do is let themselves be loved. I would like them to learn that what is most valuable is not what they have in their lives, but who they have in their lives.” He went on: “I want my children to learn it is not good to compare themselves to others. They need to value themselves for their own gifts, talents and abilities.” When I reflect on 2015, one of my richest and most meaningful experiences was the morning I went horseback riding with two grandnieces, a grandnephew, their grandfather and a cowboy friend of his. The six of us rode for miles on their large cattle ranch near Strathmore, Alta. It was a wonderful morning in the saddle with sturdy horses and a beautiful big blue sky overhead. For long periods all we heard was the rhythm of horses’ hooves and the tug of leather, punctuated by their grandfather’s commands to two border collies. He summoned the young dogs back when they veered off in pursuit of a stray coyote. They might be led into a trap. A pack of coyotes might be waiting for them. That evening I said to my brother-in-law (the other grandfather), “Your grandchildren are a $10-million family.” As soon as the words slipped my lips I knew the folly of what I had said. No amount of money could replace those precious children. What can we teach ourselves? The same lessons we want children to learn. A rich person is not the one who has the most money, but is content with what he has and values the people around him. We learn that money cannot buy happiness. If we are wise, we learn to live like children. Suggested Scripture: Proverbs 4, Mark 10:13-16 Rod Andrews is a retired Anglican bishop. He lives in Saskatoon. country-guide.ca 65
45H33 116.8 bushels per acre! Pioneer® hybrid 45H33 with Pioneer Protector® Clubroot resistance is setting new yield standards
for Western Canada. The winner of our 2015 Proving Ground™ Yield Challenge just weighed in with a whopping 116.8 bu/ac*. And the runner-up delivered 84.3 bu/ac*, both growing Pioneer® hybrid 45H33.
What we do, is in our name. Pioneer® brand canola hybrids with Pioneer Protector® traits give you the peace of mind you need when growing canola. By delivering elite genetics with built-in resistance traits and solid agronomics, Pioneer® brand canola hybrids help you maximize the potential of your canola crops to achieve industry-leading yields. To find out more about achieving high canola yields, talk to your local Pioneer Hi-Bred sales representative or visit pioneer.com
*Canola yield data collected from large-scale, grower managed Proving Ground™ trials across Western Canada as of October 30, 2015 as part of the 2015 DuPont Pioneer Yield Challenge. Product responses are variable and subject to any number of environmental, disease and pest pressures. Individual results may vary. Multi-year and multi-location data is a better predictor of future performance. Refer to www.pioneer.com/yield or contact a Pioneer Hi-Bred sales representative for the latest and complete listing of traits and scores for each Pioneer® brand product. Genuity® and Roundup Ready® are registered trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC. Pioneer® brand products are provided subject to the terms and conditions of purchase which are part of the labeling and purchase documents. ®, SM, TM
@PioneerWCanada
Trademarks and service marks of DuPont, Pioneer or their respective owners. © 2016, PHII.
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