That’s not because I’m bad at spelling, mind you. Sure, I likely wouldn’t have lasted long if I’d ever gotten into one of those national-level spelling bees on TV with words so long and obscure they wouldn’t make the cut for a pocket dictionary.

But friends and family will remember a child who was absolutely insufferable about pointing out people’s typos and was driven to despair by any spelling mistake he’d ever made. If I got less insufferable as I grew older, it must have been because I discovered better things to do with my time and energy, but typos in my own writing still pain me.

All that is to say I still don’t know how it happened, but we wound up misspelling the word “resistance” in the headline “Rising restistance” right on the front page of our Sept. 9 issue. In a word: ouch.

Now, anyone seeing it would have known the intended word was “resistance” — it was subtle enough that no one so far has complained or even mentioned it to me. If I’m honest with myself, if it had happened anywhere else in the book I might not have even noted it in this space, but this week’s column is devoted to errors and I don’t want anyone to think we somehow didn’t yet see that big glaring one. It definitely was not the fault of the author of the article, so may I just say “Sorry” again to Jay Whetter — and to you?

As hard as we work to avoid them, errors can and do happen, in this paper and others. One of the books by my desk tells the story of a managing editor at the Courier-Journal in Louisville who offered up money for a staff party if they could get through a week without any error that required publishing a correction. Needless to say, he knew the publisher’s cash was pretty safe in a business that called for 100,000 words to be put to paper, day in and day out.

And as I said in this space many months ago, whenever we find errors in your Grainews, I want to make a point of mentioning them up here on this page rather than tucking them in the back of the book somewhere. Here goes.

Corrections

In the Sept. 23 print issue (“Benchmarking soil health in Alberta,” page 7), we listed a colour key for the three graphs that appeared with the article, in which the colours changed every 20 per cent as a given quantity or quality increases on the Y axis. In that colour key, “0-20” was meant to denote “red, very low,” while “80-100” would denote “blue, very high.”

Somehow, though, “0-20” in that list got replaced by a weird chunk of what looks like computer code. We regret the error, which has now been fixed in the online version of the article.

That one’s a bit ironic, because there’ve been jokes lately on social media about how people my age or older have been known to blame something wrong in an online article on “coding error” — never mind that with the rise of platforms such as WordPress, writers filing content online haven’t had to write any of the accompanying code for many years now. But in this case, although the error was in print, it actually looks like it might have been a stray or incomplete little piece of code. How’d it happen? I have no idea. But we regret the error and we apologize to the writer, Leeann Minogue, and to you for any confusion.

Last but not least, in the Sept. 23 print issue, in Peter Vitti’s column in the Cattleman’s Corner section (“Creep feeding pays good profits in 2025,” page 20), you’ll see where a table was included with the article comparing gains from creep feeding to a no-creep program. Certainly a 6,814-lb. weaned calf would be a pretty darned amazing, and very frightening, gain from creep feeding — but come on. The numbers for creep feeding clearly aren’t the correct numbers and they definitely do not correspond to the numbers in the actual spreadsheet file we got from Peter Vitti.

Again, I’m at a complete loss as to how that happened and I don’t know where that weird line of numbers came from in the first place. We’ve got the correct figures in the online version of the article and I’m now also putting the correct table here in this column for your reference. If you’ve saved the Sept. 23 issue for future reference, you’d be doing us a huge favour if you’d clip this out and glue or tape it down over the table on that page.

Seriously: we regret the error and we apologize to Peter Vitti, and to you as well, for any confusion.

Hopefully all this wasn’t as painful for you as it is for me; I may be signing off now to go chug some Alka-Seltzer. We’ll keep putting up a strong resistance to errors, but if you see any in this issue of Grainews that warrant a correction in this space, or if you have any questions, comments or concerns, don’t hesitate to reach out to me via email.

The post Editor’s Rant: Resistance is not futile appeared first on Grainews.

The discussion revolved around agriculture media’s coverage of adoption, or lack thereof, of new or emerging technology or processes — and how media thread the needle between naysaying and naked boosterism.

One of the participating farmers spoke of a drawback to being an early adopter of a beneficial management practice or technology.

Most farmers want to be good stewards of the land and environment — and when new technology seems promising and a feasible opportunity arises, they’d like to try it out.

Problem is, he said, adopting that new technology or system will cost you — and what’s worse, only after you and other early adopters have proven the concept, along come governments with grants or other incentives for your neighbours to follow suit.

In effect, you’ve been penalized for early adoption, he explained, so what’s the point? Sure, as the saying goes, a good deed is its own reward — but there’s no line on your tax forms for that.

What’s needed in lieu of such grants, he said, is a tax credit for innovation in farming — which sounded more than reasonable while I sat there taking notes, but the metaphorical devil will be, as always, in the details.

For one thing, who gets to define “innovation?” Well, for tax purposes, it’d be government — the same folks who waited for proof of concept before offering up those grants for adoption of approved BMPs.

Frankly, they have good reason to be hesitant. No bureaucrat, nor anyone else, wants to see their name in an auditor general’s report, in two or five or 10 years, detailing potential tax revenue lost in credits granted to bad ideas. Or to good ideas executed badly. Or to snake oil salesmen, et cetera.

Therein lies the catch-22. I wrote here a few months ago about Canada’s glacial pace of approvals for new crop chemistry — a topic our colleagues at the Western Producer more recently covered extensively.

For the sake of our competitiveness as an ag-exporting nation, we need nimble, flexible decision-making, but the safety of the public (and its tax dollars) demands thorough due diligence. In short, there’s another needle to be threaded and Canada is stabbing itself repeatedly.

‘Overly reliant’

Before the conference I’d set aside a recent report to read later, prepared by Farm Management Canada for the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute (CAPI), titled Striking the Balance: Proactive Strategy Versus Reactive Response. The report’s key premise is that Canada’s ag sector has been “overly reliant” on the government suite of business risk management (BRM) programs such as crop insurance, AgriStability and AgriRecovery as “the only risk management solution.”

CAPI calls for a shift in focus to “proactive planning, prevention, and preparedness through skills development, advisory services and incentive-based programming.”

BRM programs now in place “are largely reactive, helping farmers cope with the fallout from weather events, market fluctuations and trade policy,” the report says. “What is missing is a concerted effort and programming to help farmers become more proactive, by planning ahead and developing the skills and practices to build their capacity to face future challenges with confidence and certainty.”

Put another way, it proposes to shift your focus away from paying fire insurance premiums, toward building the house least likely to burn down.

The report doesn’t propose scrapping those programs farmers need to react to disasters, but rather notes “the long-term resilience and prosperity of Canadian agriculture depend on shifting the balance toward proactive strategies.”

And don’t even get it started on AgriInvest, which the report calls for “re-examining and possibly eliminating,” as it “has minimal impact on supporting risk management.”

Of course, it acknowledges, “while some of these recommendations require financial support, others simply require effort. In any case, in order to be successful, they all require sustained, nationally-led and co-ordinated support.”

Interestingly, it also calls for a major review of risk management extension programs in Canada, “including the possibility of adopting and/or adapting the U.S. extension model.” And it would “incentivize comprehensive risk assessment and planning through grants, tax credits and improved access to risk management programs.”

It’s an interesting concept, to be sure, and not unheard of. Many years ago I chatted with a CEO who was a proponent of this idea in his personal life, preferring to invest in risk mitigation rather than insurance wherever possible. I mention he was a CEO only to burnish my point that this form of risk management takes some serious upfront investment — and, if you place any value on your time, the “effort” mentioned in the report also costs money.

All this brings us back to our farmer friend at the conference, and his concern early adopters are essentially penalized for investing in beneficial practices and technology before government gets in on it.

I can’t say to what extent CAPI already has the ear of decision-makers who would be on the hook for any grants, tax credits or other supports for this sort of risk management. But if it does, where’s the incentive to continue for any farmers who have long since started work to reduce their reliance on BRM programs? Should they just put that effort on hold now until public funding comes along?

Come to think of it, have I just helped to set back the whole idea of proactive risk management by mentioning this report even exists?

As always, drop me a line with any questions, concerns or comments of your own.

The post Editor’s Rant: Reward v. risk appeared first on Grainews.

Amid all that, in July, came a smug, unhelpful letter to the Canadian embassy from six Republican members of the House of Representatives from Wisconsin and Minnesota — alleging Canada’s current wildfire season was the result of “a lack of active forest management” and arson. They went on to assure Canadians, “With all the technology that we have at our disposal, both in preventing and fighting wildfires, this worrisome trend can be reversed if proper action is taken” — whatever that meant.

Worse yet, as smoke billowed right across Canada, the six congresspeople hastened to add that “our constituents have been limited in their ability to go outside and safely breathe due to the dangerous air quality the wildfire smoke has created. In our neck of the woods, summer months are the best time of the year to spend time outdoors recreating, enjoying time with family, and creating new memories, but this wildfire smoke makes it difficult to do all those things.”

Between its lines, the letter was U.S. exceptionalism at its worst — insinuating not just that changes in world weather patterns somehow had nothing to do with this year’s disastrous conditions here and elsewhere, but that thick wildfire smoke sailed clearly, harmlessly, over the heads of all Canadians. And sure, let’s top that off with their suggestion we’re being awfully inconsiderate of Americans’ holiday plans and have nothing better to do with our own summers than watch our friends’ and neighbours’ homes burn.

Oddly, after I just went on for 250 words about it, my point today wasn’t to rant, again, about U.S. elected officials’ failure to read the room. Rather, it’s about exceptionalism — and I wanted to draw on an outside example to show how many Canadians sound when they talk about separatism.

Nations splitting from others by various forces and means, for good or ill, is nothing new in history. At the municipal level, there may be nothing wrong with jurisdictions seeking autonomy when residents collectively feel they’re not getting value for their tax dollars. Here in Winnipeg alone, I can think of one such campaign in which a community succeeded in seceding from the city; another similar campaign, not so much.

And if getting value for money was all that western separatism ever purported to be about, I might even be fine with that — assuming that the parties to the treaties covering the land base in question were somehow also fine with it.

The problem, though, lies in the suggestion put forward by many avowed separatists: that the people of Alberta or Saskatchewan or the Prairies or the broader West are rooted in culture and values that the rest of Canada doesn’t share and/or refuses to understand.

Now, to be sure, some cultural markers have evolved within those arbitrary provincial lines. (Darn right it’s a bunnyhug, not a hoodie.)

To imply, though, that Canadians elsewhere don’t share the western work ethic — that they would do nothing, given control of vast swaths of cropland, pastureland, fossil fuel deposits or whatever forest is still left — comes off as arrogant at best. Especially considering the number of Canadians from elsewhere who come west to do work westerners can’t be found to do.

Or to imply, for that matter, that other Canadians don’t value their families’ well-being. Or don’t value entrepreneurship. Or don’t want their offspring to succeed. Many of these ostensibly western traits read as vague as a fortune cookie.

Beyond those insinuations, a lot of the catchphrases of today’s western separatism read, to me, like U.S. Republican talking points on a handful of unrelated political wedge issues. That in turn suggests these movements, like those we saw in the early 1980s, will maintain momentum only until some small-c conservative party regains the House of Commons.

That, unfortunately for all of us, would prove the current noise is not really about resolving any problems unique to the geography, economy or other features of Canada’s West. Rather, this chatter will, until then, serve only to further reinforce an unhealthy, unproductive feedback loop of western alienation for cynical reasons.

If the social or societal costs of politicians’ continued obsession with separatism don’t bother you as Prairie grain growers, consider these costs instead.

Without the federal level of support, someone (a lot fewer someones, I mean) will be on the hook for 36 per cent of your crop insurance premiums, along with 60 per cent of AgriInsurance administrative costs and part of the cost of reinsurance.

That same smaller share of Canada’s population would also be called on to underwrite 60 per cent of any AgriRecovery program, the interest on the interest-free portion of your advance payments, matching funds for your AgriInvest contributions, and a cost share of whatever the independent West does to replace AgriStability, which nobody out here ever seems to like anyway.

That said, farm business risk management shouldn’t be a problem for long. After all, our friends in the U.S. Congress have assured us that with all that technology they have at their disposal they can make a Prairie natural disaster go away.

The post Editor’s Rant: Canada’s fortune cookie appeared first on Grainews.

If it seems the rain we do receive these days doesn’t go as far as it did in the past, it’s more than a hunch.

We’ve all had the experience of drinking more on a hot day. As it turns out, the atmosphere reacts similarly under global warming.

In the study “Warming accelerates global drought severity” published in the journal Nature, the University of California’s Santa Barbara Climate Hazards Center director Chris Funk says global warming is causing the atmosphere to behave “like a sponge, soaking up moisture faster than it can be replaced.”

In other words, the air is getting thirstier — a phenomenon that researchers say has increased the intensity of global droughts by 40 per cent over the past four decades.

“Drought is based on the difference between water supply (from precipitation) and atmospheric water demand. Including the latter reveals substantial increases in drought as the atmosphere warms,” Funk says in a release.

Globally, the areas in drought expanded by 74 per cent between 2018 and 2022. Atmospheric evaporative demand (AED) was responsible for 58 per cent of that increase.

“Our findings indicate that AED has an increasingly important role in driving severe droughts and that this tendency will likely continue under future warming scenarios.”

Most now accept that the climate is heating up, although debate continues as to the cause. Less well understood is the connection between global warming and the “desiccating influence of the atmosphere,” Funk said.

The atmosphere’s growing thirst adds a third dimension to precipitation and soil moisture equation driving crop yields — one that could challenge the viability of contemporary crop rotations.

University of Manitoba researchers recently published a study on how different crop combinations perform under drought conditions.

“The main objective of this study was to compare cropping systems that incorporated … diversity, intercropping, cover cropping, and heat tolerance with a “business-as-usual” rotation,” the research team, consisting of Samantha Curtis, Martin Entz, Katherine Stanley, Doug Cattani and Kim Schneider, reports in the Canadian Journal of Plant Science.

Atmospheric dryness (measured as vapour pressure deficit) during the two-year study in 2020-2021 was well above the long-term average.

The business-as-usual rotation selected for this study was wheat-canola-wheat-soybean, grown over two years at the Ian N. Morrison Research Farm located at Carman, Man.

The study also included a warm-season combination (corn-sunflower-dry bean-canola), a biodiverse rotation containing nine crops (fall rye with a cover crop-intercropped corn and soybeans-intercropped peas and canola-green fallow mixture), a perennial grain (Kernza intermediate wheat grass) and an organic rotation (millet-green fallow mixture-wheat).

The business-as-usual rotation yielded only 71 per cent of the biodiverse rotation and 59 per cent of the warm-season rotation. It also had a lower net return than the warm season rotation and fewer “live root days,” which is a measure of soil health potential, than either the biodiverse or the warm-season rotation.

The biodiverse rotation resulted in a net return similar to the business-as-usual crop mix, but needed half as much the nitrogen fertilizer. “While the biodiverse rotation required more seeding passes and greater plant diversity knowledge, the benefits observed here suggest that incentives and educational programs to speed adoption of biodiverse systems should be a priority,” the research report says.

“If growing conditions in Manitoba continue to become hotter and drier as predicted, growing more water-use efficient crops such as fall rye, corn, sunflower, and corn-soybean intercrops would increase climate resilience.”

A drying atmosphere also sets stage for the devastating wildfires now sweeping through wide swaths of Western Canada’s boreal forests every spring and summer, creating the prolonged and hazardous smoke conditions cloaking the region.

One of the unanticipated outcomes from all that smoke is its counterbalancing effect cooling things down.

A recently released University of Washington paper says wildfires in Canada and Siberia may reduce the earth’s warming by up to 12 per cent globally and 38 per cent in the Arctic over the next 35 years.

“Because the aerosols in smoke brighten clouds and reflect sunlight, summer temperatures during fire season drop in northern regions, leading to reduced sea ice loss and cooler winter temperatures,” lead author Edward Blanchard-Wrigglesworth says in a release.

No one can say this is good news. The authors point out that wildfires are expected to intensify in coming years, which doesn’t bode well for human health or forest biodiversity. And their effects on the boreal forest may escalate the release of more carbon into the atmosphere.

What all this is telling us is that even with computer modeling, improved real-time monitoring and technologies such as the emerging AI, we don’t have a good handle on the cascading effects of a changing environment. The effects and counterbalances are constantly setting new changes in motion.

I am reminded of an expression I’ve heard now and again from some of the more seasoned farmers I know: “Nature always bats last.”

The post Western Canadian agriculture’s growing thirst appeared first on Grainews.

What I didn’t know when I started writing this column, is how important the role of inspiration is to our lives. For example, in Scott Barry Kaufman’s story “Why Inspiration Matters” in Harvard Business Review, he points out inspiration awakens us to new possibilities by “allowing us to transcend our ordinary experiences and limitations. It also propels a person from apathy to possibility and transforms the way we perceive our own capabilities,” he says.

Kaufman outlines research results on the topic, concluding inspiration can be activated, captured and manipulated, and has a “major effect on important life outcomes.”

Being open to inspiration has many benefits such as more likelihood to set and attain “inspired goals.” And inspired people reported higher levels of important psychological resources, including belief in their own abilities.

“Mastery of work, absorption, creativity, perceived competence, self-esteem and optimism were all consequences of inspiration, suggesting that inspiration facilitates these important psychological resources…. Finally, inspired individuals reported experiencing more purpose in life and more gratitude,” said Kaufman.

I wonder, what inspires you?

I am inspired by many things: people, new ideas, books, nature, art — the list is long. In my work environment, I am inspired by my colleagues, farmers, other ag writers and, of course, our Grainews columnists.

Each columnist, in his or her own unique way, heartens, motivates and even challenges me. From every column, I take away something inspiring to ponder over the following weeks or months.

Which brings me to an announcement.

It gives me great pleasure to introduce you to Stuart Chutter, who will be appearing in the pages of Grainews as a columnist.

Stuart is a first-generation purebred beef producer who raises his livestock near Killaly, Sask. Stuart is passionate about regenerative agriculture and the elements that build a solid foundation for a healthy farm and a healthy farmer. Nutrition and fuel for performance, health, recovery and resiliency are the elements he says are building a strong foundation for his farm and soil, and within himself.

Stuart’s first column from our Mar. 7 issue of Grainews explores what it means to him to be a regenerative farmer and its connections and parallels with the challenges and growth of training for an ultra marathon (which is anything longer than 42.2 kilometres).

I hope you find his first column as inspiring as I did. It has transformed the way I perceive my own capabilities. No, I won’t be running an ultra marathon any time soon, but his story did motivate me to action — I dusted off my runners and committed to more walking, renewed my dedication to a healthy lifestyle and I’m dreaming of a five-kilometre run … someday. That is all down to Stuart.

While we’re on this topic, I wanted to draw your attention to a group of inspiring people. The folks at the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA) work tirelessly to promote safety and health in agriculture. Did you see the association’s story from our Feb. 28 issue on how to prevent tractor rollovers and runovers? This story highlights the quality of information CASA provides.

Next week is Canadian Agriculture Safety Week (CASW) from March 12-18. The theme this year is Safety is Our Promise and is part of the three-year safety campaign, “Your Farm, Your Family, Your Success.” The call to action for CASW 2023 is to encourage farmers, farm families, farm workers and farming communities to commit to #FarmSafetyEveryday.

An easy way to celebrate CASW is to join the AgSafe Ribbon Campaign to declare your support and raise awareness about safety. You can download a virtual AgSafe Ribbon from the CASA/ACSA website which you can share on social media.

You can use the AgSafe Ribbon to start a discussion about farm safety with your family, friends and community, declare you are a farm safety champion and share why farm safety is important to you. Remember to use the hashtag #FarmSafetyEveryday if you join the ribbon campaign.

In closing, I’d like to leave you with two questions. What or who inspires you? How will you live “safety is our promise” this year? Drop me a line at kbelanger@farmmedia.com.

Have a happy and healthy March,
Kari

The post Editor’s Column: Inspiration is more than a feeling appeared first on Grainews.

We’re in the middle of strategic planning for Grainews. And do you know what’s guiding us through this process? You. You are our inspiration. Your farming communities are our inspiration. For you, we’re breaking new ground. What I’m specifically talking about are innovations we can implement that will serve you better. We’re thinking about ways we can improve how we deliver the information you need to support and increase profitability on your farms.

We’re not going to blindly apply something new without doing our homework, gathering reliable information and testing the ground before we move ahead with something we think is innovative. It’s like we’re doing our own strip trials.

For example, we’re testing an idea right now about another way for you to access the information in Grainews. If you’re a farmer, you’re a pretty good multi-tasker, I’ll bet. And when you’re spending those long hours in the combine, truck or tractor, you probably want to accomplish other tasks as well — like listening to crop production tips in Grainews, rather than reading them. What we’ve done is we’ve turned some of our most popular Grainews stories into audio files, so you have the option to listen to them. But we’re running our strip trials first before we roll it out completely (and it is exciting)! If it serves you better, we’ll know it.

Here’s how we’re testing it. In this Grainews issue (and the last one), there is a QR code on the top left-hand corner of the cover. Use the camera on your cellphone and point it at the QR code. A little tab will pop up that says grainews.ca. Click that tab and it will take you to a spot on our website where you can listen to the current cover stories as well as some of our most popular stories from the past year. While there, you can let us know what you think of this innovation.

We’ve already collected a lot of your feedback (and it appears you really like this option to listen to our features). As we come up with more ideas, we’ll test them also and gather your feedback. To find out what we’re doing that’s new, look for that QR code at the top of the front page of Grainews.

And, who better to know what you need and want than you? You’re probably full of great ideas and opinions on how you’d like to engage with Grainews and the information we can provide you. Please email me with any input or ideas you have to make Grainews even better. Also, if you come across one of our surveys, please let us know what you think. We’re listening.

Best wishes for Lee Hart

Now, this next bit of news I’m about to tell you I didn’t want to happen, but those winds of change, they will blow. Lee Hart has decided to retire. I know. It’s going to be hard to imagine Grainews without Lee. However, there is some good news … it’s semi-retirement. Lee, who has always had a special interest in beef and livestock production, will be continuing as the editor of Cattleman’s Corner, which is such an important part of Grainews.

Lee has been writing for more than 50 years, and he has lived and breathed agriculture as a reporter and editor for about 35 years, which is an incredible legacy. Lee has been writing for Grainews since the summer of 2005 and before that Country Guide since 1987. Lee was born and raised on a farm, so he’s always been interested in agriculture, he says. And as a writer and editor at Grainews he liked being part of something informative, something sometimes entertaining and what he hopes has been useful to western Canadian farmers.

I have had the pleasure of working with Lee since February 2020. It’s not often you get to work with someone you admire and respect — and they live up to that pedestal you’ve put them on. Lee is a first-rate reporter and editor but what is so special about his work is he explains complex topics so that anyone can understand them — and with wit, insight, humility and humour. I have always thought of Lee as the W.O. Mitchell of ag reporters (Mitchell was the writer of the iconic Canadian Prairie novel Who Has Seen the Wind, one of my personal all-time fiction favourites). I think Lee’s curiosity, willingness to learn something new and ability to make strong connections with the people around him is part of his magic as a reporter.

I recently asked Lee about what (semi-) retirement looks like for him and he says he’s going to spend some time with his almost-four-year-old grandson, maybe get in a bit of golf and some travelling, once travelling isn’t so complicated. He’s also looking forward to walks, guilt-free naps anytime he wants and to explore new territory on a recently purchased electric bike. But if you want to hear about his retirement in his own words, I encourage you to read his column on page 18. He is planning on some contract writing work. I’m hoping he will still grace the pages of Grainews as a guest columnist or contributor.

I also asked Lee what he was most looking forward to and what he was least looking forward to. In typical Lee fashion, he said, as a writer and editor for 50 years, he’s hoping to have stretches of time where he doesn’t have to think about deadlines (that is every writer’s dream) and he’s least looking forward to not being able to claim lunches as a work expense. “If I’m not careful, I may lose weight.” I’m going to greatly miss Lee’s sense of humour.

With Lee’s impending retirement, we were left with a vacancy for a writer. However, we have been working on this since Lee’s announcement to us earlier this year. I am very excited to let you know that Jim Timlick, who many of you may already know from his work as a Manitoba reporter for many publications, has joined our Grainews team.

Jim has worked as a writer for more than 20 years and has won several Manitoba Community Newspapers Association (MCNA) awards during that time. He has also worked in the communications field, including a stint as communications manager for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers football club (2005-08). Jim is passionate about food and cooking, and he has a strong interest in food security, which led him, about a decade ago, to the agriculture industry as a writer and editor. He has written for a number of different ag publications over that time, including work as a contributor for Grainews.

Jim starts with us this month. Please join me in welcoming him to our Grainews community.

As the Chinese proverb goes, “When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills.” We’re building those windmills and harnessing that kinetic energy at Grainews this fall.

Take care,

Kari

The post Editor’s Column: Winds of change appeared first on Grainews.

Genny particularly remembers the drought in 2001, which she says was different to the one currently causing considerable challenges for crop and livestock producers across Western Canada and the United States.

“It (the drought in 2001) wasn’t good, but it didn’t last this long and the temperatures didn’t seem to be this severe. We haven’t had a drop of rain through the whole month of July (this year),” she said during a telephone conversation on August 9.

On the farm, the barley crop has already been written off as well as some of the wheat crop. As for canola, on about 100 acres there was no crop at all. However, the Silvernagles have been able to help out some cattle producers. A neighbour with a cattle operation cut and baled the barley crop for feed. Ron and Brent swathed the wheat crop for another farmer who also baled it for cattle feed. And the canola was tested to determine if it could be fed to cattle — that farmer was told he could mix it with other feed, so that was baled as well.

Farmers have faced many challenges this year — extreme heat, what’s shaping up to be an historic drought, wind, hail, fire, grasshoppers and the continuation of a global pandemic, to name a few. For grain farmers, the effects of the drought across the Prairie provinces have ranged from harvestable crops with lower yields to complete crop failure. At the time of writing on August 10, pasture conditions are continuing to deteriorate, hay yields are low and livestock producers are desperately trying to secure feed for cattle in Western Canada. Many farmers are feeling powerless in the face of this drought.

Dale Fossay, who has been farming in the Starbuck, Man., area for more than 40 years, says the drought has affected all of the farmers he knows in the area. On his farm, which is situated in Manitoba’s Red River Valley, Fossay has harvested a couple of fields of barley and a wheat field. The yields so far have been half of what he would normally expect.

One of Dale’s brothers farms in Manitoba’s hard-hit Interlake region, where, as of August 3, only five per cent of the area’s spring wheat, barley, oats and canola are rated good to excellent. Like the Silvernagles, who have come to the aid of their livestock producer neighbours, Dale is helping his brother out with as much straw as he can spare and with some of his oat crop (which was written off) for cattle feed.

Both the Silvernagles and the Fossays feel enrolling in crop insurance and the Canadian Agricultural Partnership business risk management programs, such as AgriInvest and AgriStability, are an important part of their risk management strategies. Dale says another way he and his brothers have weathered past droughts and financially tough decades like the ’80s (high interest rates, a few poor crops in row and low commodity prices) is to resist the temptation to buy new equipment and machinery and opt for used instead.

The Fossays also believe increasing diversity on their farms to include higher value crops suited to their regions helps spread financial risk. For example, they have chosen corn and sunflowers to help them manage risk. “Both crops have been good for me and my farming brothers,” says Dale.

Janine Sekulic, BMO’s national director of agriculture and agribusiness, in her Western Producer opinion piece “How to manage this cruel summer” from the August 5, 2021 issue, offers tips on informing and strengthening your financial positions.

From updating your financial planning tools with current information, to the importance and uses of business plans and seeking out advisors as potential resources, to tools such as cash-flow projections and break-even analysis, Sekulic discusses ways to help farmers “ensure stability in an operation, wrangle control of what can be controlled, and optimize profitability.”

Features like this one and more to help you manage the financial, emotional and crop production sides of this drought can be found on our website at grainews.ca and those of our sister publications Country Guide, The Western Producer, Alberta Farmer Express, Farmtario, Manitoba Co-operator and Canadian Cattlemen.

However, there is an easier route to access all of the information you need to manage through the 2021 drought. The Dry Times will be a resource guide available online from any point across the Glacier FarmMedia (GFM) network. You will be able to access all stories on the drought from the GFM family of publications as well as links to government and industry resources that support farm families through difficult times. This one-stop shop is accessible at farmmedia.com/dry-times and includes the categories livestock, crops and health.

The livestock category will offer the latest news, features and links to extension materials to help answer the hard questions — whether to sell or not sell, managing alternative sources of feed, balancing herd nutrition and maintaining herd health.

The crops category will also provide news, features and links to extension supports for field and crop management through these dry times. And the health category will provide information and topical links that support the farm’s most important asset — you, the farmer.

Looking after yourself and your family is even more crucial during times like these. There are many programs on offer from organizations like the Do More Agriculture Foundation to help farmers manage drought-related emotional and financial stress. There is also your own support network you’ve built up for years — your neighbours, family and friends — to connect with and who may be able to help you meet the challenges you are facing now or those that may develop in the future due to the drought.

If there is a particular resource helping you and your farm operation during this time you would like to share with other farmers, please email me at kbelanger@farmmedia.com or call me at 204-801-1645.

My thoughts are with you and I wish you a happy and safe August,
Kari

The post Editor’s Column: The Dry Times. A GFM drought resource designed for farmers appeared first on Grainews.

This tweet posted by Alberta farmer Walter Moebis (@Wally_53) on May 8 is about the simple, red, heart-shaped safety stickers, with the straightforward message, “Please Be Careful. We Love You, Your Family.” I believe they were the brainchild of United Grain Growers (please correct me if I’m wrong) and they’ve been stuck on everything from farm machinery and implements to windows, doors, walls and even a lunch kit or two for decades. 

Farmers from all three Prairie provinces responded to Walter’s tweet. Dean (@loophole farms) from Saskatchewan posted this photo:

While Michael (@YoungBuckFarms) from Alberta said he remembers one of those stickers on a neighbour’s International tractor when he was young. “It had one of those stickers by the tach. I remember reading it while riding on Dad’s knee,” he tweeted. 

Chris (@27Sprint) from Manitoba said, around 1980, he put one of those stickers on his lunch kit while “riding around in the potato truck with my mom.” 

Ted (@TSmith1867), an Alberta farmer, tweeted he’d moved onto his grandparents’ farm about seven years ago and he sees those heart stickers everywhere on the farm — like the auger and the quad. 

Also from Alberta, Jerome (@abfarmdawg) still has one of those stickers on his office wall and Jill (@Crookedlakecows) found some in a tool box. 

As I write this column, planting is in full swing and farmers are working all hours to get seed in the ground and complete the never-ending list of spring farm tasks. I know you know this already, but it always bears repeating: fatigued workers are a significant occupational safety hazard. When you are tired you are less effective and maintaining safety becomes more difficult. 

These and more safety messages about fatigue can be found on the AgSafe Alberta website, such as the level of risk for the fatigued worker is very high and is more likely to contribute to an incident. Here are some more facts the organization provides about fatigue:

• Fatigue is among the top five causes of worker incidents
• Fatigue is four times more likely to contribute to workplace impairment than drugs or alcohol
• Canadian night shift workers are twice as likely to be injured on the job as day shift workers 
• Being awake for 21 hours is the safety equivalent of someone legally impaired by alcohol (BAC 0.08 per cent)
• Previous hours of sleep can be directly related to occupational incident rates

These facts are taken from AgSafe Alberta’s easy-to-read guide called “Fatigue Management Strategies on the Farm,” (opens as a PDF) or just Google the document’s title. Another story your Google search will turn up is “Fatigue management during busy times on the farm,” which appeared in Grainews on September 24, 2019. This feature is geared toward another never- enough-hours-in-a-day time of year — harvest. However, these tips also apply to the planting season.

What has all of this got to do with some tweets about stickers? Walter, replying to Dean (@loopholefarms) on Twitter, said it best: 

Those heart stickers placed all around farms in Western Canada are still out there and continue to be a great reminder of how important your safety is in those hurried moments — even during those crazy, gotta-getter-done times. And, I believe, over the decades, there’s a high probability they’ve saved lives. 

Walter suggested to me it may be time “to revive some old ideas that worked.” If you think these stickers might help everyone on your farm remember to put safety first, email (kbelanger@ farmmedia.com), phone (204-801-1645) or direct message me on Twitter (@Kari_Grainews) and I’ll send you some. We still have a few rolls at Grainews. Former editor Leeann Minogue made sure I knew we had extras at the office for anyone who wanted them — she’s still looking out for you (Thank you, Leeann!). 

You’ll likely be done seeding by the time you receive your stickers, but they’ll be there to remind you to put your safety above all else at harvest. They could well be there as safety reminders for years — or even generations — to come. 

Have a safe and productive planting season, Kari 

The post Editor’s Column: Stickers add heart and soul to farm safety appeared first on Grainews.

The report’s fifth edition, 2020 Public Trust Research Report: Trends in Trust and the Path Forward, was released last November by the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity (CCFI). In the report, farmers were rated No. 1 for food safety, overall trust and providing information about food when compared with other food system stakeholders (see table at top).

The survey indicated confidence in Canada’s food system is at an all-time high. And the proportion of Canadians who feel our food system is headed in the right direction reached a five-year high with a significant 12-point increase compared with 2019. All of this during the COVID-19 pandemic, when our food system was under unprecedented pressure and public scrutiny.

According to the report, the sector remained strong, resulting in Canadians feeling optimistic about their food supply. Specifically, the food system’s response to the pandemic is highly praised by Canadians — nearly nine in 10, or 87 per cent, trust the food system will ensure the availability of healthy food for Canadians.

Your voice matters

As the most trusted voice in the food system, your stories about food production are important. And due to the recent confidence boost in our food system, now is a great time to build on this momentum.

There are a lot of great ag stories out there to tell. Related to this, and equally important, is to dispel myths and misinformation surrounding agriculture.

Timothy Caulfield, author and Canada research chair in health law and policy at the University of Alberta, also believes farmers are well placed to battle misinformation because they’re viewed as both experts and trusted voices.

During his keynote presentation, “Infodemics: Food, Fear and Agriculture,” at the Farming Smarter 2020 Conference and Trade Show last month, Caulfield said it is becoming increasingly important to debunk misinformation.

We all have a tendency to shy away from countering misinformation, whether the source is social media, the news, the public or even among friends and family. I am often amazed by the misinformation I hear about farming practices and food production. Even my family, who hears about crop production and agriculture on a daily basis, will repeat to me something entirely false they’ve read on social media or by Googling a topic.

Caulfield urged conference attendees to become part of the “debunking army,” and to expose fallacies around ag. For example, he cited studies that showed debunking misinformation about GMOs can change people’s perceptions about the issue.

He also offered nine effective debunking tools. These are a great place to start if you want to share your stories with others.

Timothy Caulfield’s Debunking Tools

1. Provide the science about the issue you’re addressing.
2. Use clear and shareable content. For example, what will that content look like on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram?
3. Use trustworthy and independent sources of science.
4. Provide the scientific consensus on the topic, also noting science is a process and scientific consensus is going to evolve.
5. Be nice, authentic, empathetic and humble. You’ll be viewed as more credible if this is your approach. To be authentic, don’t just concentrate on data, talk about your life and how the topic is relevant to your work on the farm.
6. To push misinformation, people use narratives and anecdotes. Misinformation is often embedded in a narrative or anecdote. Use the same kinds of stories, narratives or anecdotes to push good science — and creativity wins.
7. Highlight gaps in logic and rhetorical tricks.
8. Make the fact what people remember (and not the misinformation).
9. Remember the general public is the audience, not the hardcore deniers.

I realize many of you are very modest about the work you do; however, non-farmers are truly interested in and engaged with agriculture and how food is produced right now due to the pandemic. What an enormous opportunity this presents to share your good news stories about the food you grow for your fellow Canadians.

Do you have a story to tell? Will you join the debunk army? Email me at kbelanger@farmmedia.com. I’d love to hear from you.

Stay well,

Kari

The post Editor’s Column: How to debunk misinformation appeared first on Grainews.

Should we grow lentils? Nobody seems to be predicting that Indian import markets will change any time soon. But they grew so well last year, and with a dry year in the cards, disease shouldn’t be a problem.

Canola’s been profitable for us. But we came out of the fall with very little moisture and there’s barely any snow on the ground now. What if we buy the seed, plant the crop, put in the fertilizer and… it doesn’t come up?

To get a little more information, I went to see John DePutter speak in Weyburn at an event sponsored by the Farm Credit Corporation.

A new paradigm

After the boom from 2008 to 2012, things have been fairly gloomy for U.S. farmers. And, John DePutter says, it doesn’t look much better for this year. “For a lot of U.S. farmers, corn and wheat are below production costs,” he said.

U.S. land prices are starting to show some wear and tear. A February farmland price report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Agency shows that cropland values in the U.S. Northern Plains increased 10 per cent during 2003 to 2008, then 16 per cent during 2009 to 2014. But in the period from 2015 to 2016, Northern Plains land values fell by two per cent. It’s certainly not a crash, but it is a decline that reflects the drop in cash grain and oilseed prices, the report says.

The USDA is forecasting next year’s U.S. farm cash income to be slightly lower than 2017, which was already far below the highs of 2011, 2012 and 2013.

In Canada, we’ve missed the worst of the poor ag income issues they’ve been seeing south of the border. Our low Canadian dollar is the biggest factor that’s been working in our favour. In Weyburn, John DePutter called this factor “The Great Canadian Dollar Bonus Program.”

If you’ve spent the winter planning an Easter break trip to Disneyland, you might think a low dollar’s not ideal, but if you do the math on the production we’re selling into world markets, our low Canadian dollar has been keeping our prices up.

The Canadian dollar isn’t the only factor that has worked in our favour. DePutter also pointed to our diverse selection of crops. This really hit home for me when I took a drive through Iowa a couple of summers ago. They aren’t kidding when they talk about “corn and soybeans.” You could drive for miles without seeing any other crop growing.

Another factor that’s been keeping our farm incomes up is what DePutter referred to as a “technology revolution” — developments in precision ag, gene editing and all kinds of other areas of ag technology.

So while it’s not as gloomy here as it is south of the border, we probably don’t have an ongoing boom in front of us. “I don’t think you’re going to be looking at those highs from 2012-13 for a long, long time,” DePutter said.

We might see some moderate rallies here and there, “but not huge bull markets,” he said.

When you’re going through an extreme, he said, referring to the years of high prices we’ve recently gone through, “you know there’s a flip side.”

If you want to make a sad person happy and a happy person sad, look to an old Persian saying: “This too shall pass.”

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