Agriculture Minister Blaine Pedersen on Wednesday announced what the province billed as “a new rural service delivery model to modernize services provided to clients whose needs and expectations have changed.”

The new model, set to take effect April 1, will consist of 10 agricultural service centres, to be staffed by both the provincial ag department and Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp. (MASC), the Crown crop insurance and ag lending agency.

Another nine rural offices will house department staff but will not be open to the public, the province said in a release.

Another five offices, meanwhile, will be devoted to “integrated resource management” and two other resource development offices will focus on minerals and petroleum respectively.

The new “multichannel” service delivery model will also involve development of an online chat program from which clients will be able to get “real-time assistance” via smartphone, tablet, computer or toll-free phone. An exact launch date for that program wasn’t given in Wednesday’s release.

Each office will also have a “client-accessible kiosk” for access to such online services, the province said.

Affected offices

The new consolidated ag service centres are to handle MASC’s insurance, lending, farmland school tax rebate and wildlife damage compensation services, along with licensing and permit applications, and also to provide information on ag department programs.

Those 10 combined offices will be at Arborg, Brandon, Dauphin, Headingley, Killarney, Morden, Neepawa, Portage la Prairie, Steinbach and Swan River.

Other workspace for department employees will remain — but will not be open to the public — at Beausejour, Carberry, Carman, Melita, Minnedosa, Neepawa, Portage la Prairie, Roblin and Virden.

Department and MASC offices set to close entirely under the new model include:

• the combined agriculture and MASC offices at Altona, Hamiota, Morris, Somerset, St. Pierre Jolys and Teulon;
• agriculture offices at Ashern, Gladstone, Lundar, Pilot Mound, Russell, Souris, Ste. Rose du Lac and Vita;
• MASC offices at Birtle, Deloraine, Fisher Branch, Glenboro, Grandview, Shoal Lake and Souris; and
• a petroleum branch office at Waskada.

The department’s “integrated resource management” offices will be at Brandon, Gimli, Lac du Bonnet, The Pas and Thompson; the minerals service office will be at Flin Flon and the petroleum services office at Virden.

Wednesday’s announcement didn’t specify whether or where MASC would continue to offer bilingual services. Its two listed bilingual offices, at St. Pierre Jolys and Somerset, are both slated to close.

“Meeting the needs of our clients with professional knowledge, current research and data, connections to appropriate links, and timely, unbiased information has always been a priority for our department,” Pedersen said in Wednesday’s release.

“The array of services that will be provided online, by telephone or in person at agricultural service centres throughout the province will offer producers a convenient and client-focused means to access the programs and services that are available to them.”

Keystone Agricultural Producers, the province’s general farm group, had warned earlier this year that the province should carefully consider any cuts it might make to MASC services, as adjusters will still need to be able to assess claims in a timely manner.

“I need to make important decisions about whether to rip up a crop and re-seed,” KAP president Bill Campbell told the Manitoba Co-operator in May. “Most of the work will be done out of the district offices. There aren’t many adjusters going from Portage to Swan River.”

In a separate statement Thursday, Campbell said that while KAP “welcome(s) the option to access forms, applications and information online, the opportunity to speak face-to-face with specialists is essential. This will be more challenging for many producers, particularly in western Manitoba.”

KAP, he said, has been “assured that these measures will not impact staffing levels” but he reiterated the organization’s members “are concerned about ongoing access to staff and have noted this issue for some time.”

Following provincial health guidelines, all ag department and MASC offices have been closed to walk-in or other unscheduled visits for months already due to the COVID-19 pandemic. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The gain in producer prices followed four months of consecutive decreases and matched a flash estimate released by the statistical agency earlier this month.

StatsCan said the May increase was driven by higher prices for meat, fish and dairy products as well as gains in energy and petroleum products. Of the 21 major commodity groups monitored by the agency, six rose, 11 fell, and four were unchanged.

Meat product prices rose 13.3 per cent, led by fresh and frozen pork, which increased a record 31.3 per cent as disruptions in the supply chain from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and higher demand for meat products contributed to the gain.

Earlier this month, StatsCan had said it expected meat prices would rise following outbreaks of COVID-19 in Canadian and U.S. meat plants that forced operations to shut down or reduce capacity.

Meanwhile, prices for energy and petroleum products rose by 4.6 per cent.

In a separate release, the national statistical agency said Canadian building permits rose 20.2 per cent, the largest percentage increase since March 2009, as some provinces eased constraints imposed on the construction industry due to the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the May figure was still 20.4 per cent below the peak seen in January 2020, StatsCan said.

The value of residential permits was up in six provinces, rising 18.7 per cent, with most of the gains due to a jump in the value of permits in single-family homes, which rose 37.5 per cent. Meanwhile, commercial permits jumped 20.8 per cent.

— Kelsey Johnson reports on Canadian economic issues for Reuters from Ottawa.

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“Our members are committed to minimizing disruptions to the Canadian fuel supply as a result of the pandemic response,” Canadian Fuels Association spokesperson Jason Vaillant said in an email.

“Our members are working tirelessly to maintain operations while keeping our employees and communities safe through this challenging time.”

Association members have all activated their existing business continuity plans in response to the pandemic.

Federated Co-operatives, now in the midst of a labour lockout as well as pandemic protocols at its Regina fuel refinery, said Wednesday its on-site work camp “will continue to ensure that the temporary operations personnel on site are isolated” and not travelling in and out of the facility.

FCL on Tuesday also announced it would defer the refinery’s spring turnaround until at least May 15. The turnaround “typically sees an influx of hundreds of additional workers on site.”

The Co-op Refinery Complex (CRC) is part of Saskatchewan’s critical infrastructure network, FCL said, and “wants to assure residents that the refinery will continue to produce fuel during this time.”

FCL also said March 6 it had already launched early spring delivery of fuel to Prairie farmers. Ron Healey, the co-op’s vice-president of ag and consumer business, said “we have positioned fuel to be as close to our farm customers as possible.”

Alberta’s UFA, one of Canada’s largest distributors of fuel for the agriculture industry, has increased cleaning in all of its stores and facilities. And while the co-operative has seen increased demand for products such as cleaning supplies and face masks, fuel supplies so far seem unaffected.

But that could change, Vaillant added.

“This is a very dynamic situation, and we will continue to monitor and respond accordingly,” he said.

“We are part of Canada’s critical infrastructure, and we will continue to work collaboratively with federal and provincial governments to maintain the operation of refineries, terminals, and the fuel supply chain.

“Our focus remains on continuing to provide secure and reliable access to transportation fuels for Canadians.”

— Jennifer Blair reports for Alberta Farmer from Red Deer. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, said retail diesel prices are down by about 10 to 15 cents per litre since the beginning of the year.

The drop in prices is caused by lower-than-average demand, partially due to milder winter temperatures in regions where diesel is used to heat homes.

However, as with most financial indices, crude oil and diesel prices are largely at the mercy of the rapidly spreading COVID-19 coronavirus. DeHaan expected prices to continue to trend downward in light of reduced demand for diesel, gasoline and jet fuel.

“The overwhelming odds are that diesel prices will continue to move lower in the weeks ahead,” he said.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Thursday proposed production cuts in order to stymie rapidly dropping crude values, which would “trickle down” to raise diesel prices as well. OPEC’s allies rejected the proposal.

However, refineries around the world could choose to cut output rates independent of an industry-wide agreement.

Oil refineries typically perform routine maintenance work on facilities at this time of year, which cause fuel inventories to dip slightly, DeHaan noted. That could cause “a small rally” in diesel prices, but markets are largely in lockstep with COVID-19 headlines.

“Prices are going to be driven by developments, either positive or negative, when it comes to the coronavirus,” he said.

“If the coronavirus simply stopped spreading tomorrow, things would be very different.”

— Marlo Glass reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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Montreal-based CN on Monday booked net income of $741 million on total revenues of $3.194 billion for its quarter ending March 31, down from $884 million on $3.206 billion in the year-earlier period.

Carloads were down 12 per cent in CN’s grain and fertilizers segment, at 145,000, for segment revenue of $539 million, down 11 per cent. Revenue per grain/fertilizer carload rose just $16, to $3,717.

In other segments, revenue from petroleum and chemical traffic dropped three per cent, to $564 million; forest products, down six per cent, to $422 million, and automotive, down four per cent, to $197 million. Intermodal and coal revenue rose 10 per cent to $814 million and $142 million respectively, while metals and minerals revenue rose seven per cent to $388 million.

Lower revenue ton miles (RTMs, gauging freight’s relative weight and distance hauled) stemmed from “challenging operating conditions, including harsh winter weather and low network resiliency,” CN said, also noting currency impacts from a stronger Canadian dollar.

Higher fuel surcharges and freight rates helped offset those drops, CN said.

Operating expenses, meanwhile, rose nine per cent to $2.164 billion on the same “challenging operating conditions” as well as higher fuel prices and training costs for new employees, offset in part by the stronger loonie.

Citing “weaker than expected” RTMs in Q1 and a “longer than anticipated construction period” on its infrastructure capacity projects this year, CN on Monday pared its full-year earnings outlook for 2018 to $5.10-$5.25 per share, down from its initial outlook of $5.20-$5.40.

However, interim CEO J.J. Ruest said in CN’s release that the company “has turned the corner on a difficult quarter and winter.

“Our metrics are showing sustained, sequential improvement, and that momentum will build as we continue to expand track capacity, add crews and bring on new locomotives,” he said.

Ruest also noted CN’s plans for increased capital spending, including about $400 million in new track infrastructure, “particularly in Western Canada, to build capacity and improve resiliency.” — AGCanada.com Network

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It’s their Delo SD SAE 15W-30. This oil complies with the newest API CJ-4 classification standards, but it’s also backward compatible with the previous service categories required by older engines.

“This product is designed for what we term as severe duty applications,” Hazen says. “What those are by our definition are stop-and-go operations, frequent start up and shut down of the engine, and frequent engine cycling to adjust to varying loads.”

With so much emphasis lately on reducing fuel consumption, many truck fleet operators are instructing their drivers to reduce idle times by shutting diesel engines off as frequently as possible. While there are cost savings to be had with that practice in both on- and off-road applications, it can be hard on engine oil, degrading it prematurely.

“There is a potential down side,” Hazen cautions. “Because those types of operations can increase the temperature of the oil. And by increasing the temperature of the oil, you could accelerate such things as oxidation. Oxidation is a breakdown of the oil, and it can result in deposits and other things that can impact component life. This (15W-30) product is specifically designed for those severe duty applications. It will resist oxidation better than other oils on the market.”

• Read more: Is synthetic engine oil worth the extra cost?

Another benefit of going to a lighter weight 15W-30 instead of 15W-40 is it allows the engine to sip a little less fuel even during general operation.

“15W-40 for a long time has been the standard in both on- and off-highway type applications,” he says. “Recently in the on-highway applications, we’ve seen people moving to a 10W-30. And the reason for that is they want to reduce their fuel consumption. And a 10W-30 will give them some fuel consumption savings.”

“(With the 15W-30) we’ve realized 1.8 per cent fuel improvement, which is comparable to a 10W-30. What we say is with 15W-30 you can get comparable fuel savings as with a 10W-30, and we tested that in Class 6 trucks. That’s something for folks to consider. But the caveat I like to throw in there is fuel consumption is very much tied to the driver as well. The driver or operator has a lot of influence on fuel economy.”

Oil change intervals

According to Hazen, a 15W-40 oil would be better suited to longer oil change intervals than the lighter weight 15W-30. But, he adds, if you are actually operating machinery in conditions that meet Chevron’s severe duty definition, trying to stretch out those intervals out no matter what oil is used may be false economy.

“That (15W-40) would be my recommendation if they’re looking to extend drain intervals,” he says. “But if you can call it severe duty, I wouldn’t look to extend drain intervals.”

And, he says, owners should always consult the vehicle manufacturer’s recommendations for viscosity selection and oil change intervals.

To see if your circumstances meet Chevron’s severe duty definition, you can go online to their new website, thisissevereduty.com, and take the quiz.

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“That is a very smart thing to do in a cold environment,” says Harry Hazen, North American marketing manager for Chevron. “There is definitely an improved flow with a synthetic. Synthetic oil has an inherently wider temperature range. It flows better in cold temperatures and maintains its viscosity at higher temperatures as well.”

Those improved flow characteristics offer better engine protection that can’t be matched by conventional, mineral-based oils. But it comes at a higher price. Despite that, is it the best choice for summer use, too?

It does offer some fuel economy gains all year round, and it can cope with extended oil change intervals. But in ag applications pushing oil change limits may not be advisable no matter what is in an engine crankcase.

“In an extreme cold environment synthetics make sense,” Hazen says. “And if you’re looking to do something with really extending drains pretty far out there, which I wouldn’t recommend for the ag environment, then that would be the two key advantages of a synthetic.”

“A synthetic oil is superior to a conventional oil,” he continues. “And what a farmer has to weigh is the benefits of that versus the costs. A synthetic will generally cost three or four times more than a premium (conventional) product. And premium products are really very good.”

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“The oil that remains is deeper in the ground and it’s of poorer quality, meaning it has more sulphur and other stuff in it, so it’s more expensive to extract and in more difficult places to get at,” says Dr. David Levin, associate professor at the University of Manitoba’s department of Biosystems Engineering. “That oil could be two kilometres under the Gulf of Mexico or in the oil sands of Alberta, where it’s all mixed with sand and the cost of getting it and refining it is very high. As an example, oil from the Alberta oil sands is not profitable unless the cost of a barrel of oil is over $65. When the price of oil went down to $58 or $60 there was a crisis in Alberta and people had to lay off workers because it wasn’t worth them extracting the oil, but now it’s around $90, it’s worth it again.”

Some of the remaining oil reserves are also in or close to sensitive ecosystems, where there can be stiff environmental opposition to their development, prompted by recent disasters such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

The petroleum industry has already recognised that at some point it is going to be better to use renewable sources of oil that can be converted into the same kind of fuels that we use today but from biological sources. This is what is referred to as next generation or “drop-in” fuels.

“If we can make oils from biomass and then put them through the existing refining processes we are going to end up with fuels that are more or less identical to what are derived from petroleum and then you don’t have to change vehicle engines or the infrastructure,’ says Levin. “This is what they call drop-in fuels; fuels that have the same chemical structure and the same chemical properties as petroleum-derived fuels but from biological sources. The new effort in biofuels is to make drop-in fuels by modifying the biological chemicals to make them the same as petroleum derived fuels.”

It can be done — it’s a problem of scale. Demand exists, even today, for alternative fuels, especially in the aviation industry, which suffers from fluctuating prices and now faces carbon taxes on planes flying to Europe. The U.S. Airforce recently announced that it is close to being able to produce jet fuel derived from algae and British Airways is planning to turn landfill waste into jet fuel for its aircraft fleet.

Food vs. fuel

As the world population grows, the debate rages over how ethical it is to use grain to produce food rather than feed for livestock and food for humans. It heightens when grain growing regions of the world suffer from floods or droughts, pushing up prices that eventually translate into higher food costs. It’s one of the reasons driving research into cellulosic biofuels that can be produced from non-food crops and agricultural waste products.

It has also been suggested that more use should be made of marginal land, which is unsuitable for food crops, to grow mixed species of cellulosic biomass crops for biofuel production. A study by researchers at Michigan State University estimated this untapped resource could provide up to 5.5 billion gallons of ethanol in the U.S. Midwest. “We estimate that using marginal lands for growing cellulosic biomass crops could provide up to 215 gallons of ethanol per acre with substantial greenhouse gas mitigation,” say the study’s authors. It would reduce greenhouse gas emissions if existing vegetation or perennial crops could be utilised, would provide additional revenue for farmers from low value land and would maintain highly productive agricultural land for food production.

How “green” are biofuels?

There is still a lot of discussion around the environmental impact of biofuels.

Many experts argue that greenhouse gas emissions involved in the production of biofuel crops, their transportation to processing facilities and the energy intensive production of the fuel, negates any benefits from reduced emissions from green-fuelled car exhausts.

Other studies have shown that greenhouse gas emissions are only reduced if waste plant materials, which would have decomposed anyway and added to carbon emissions, are used to produce the fuels or if perennial plants or existing vegetative cover are used.

The Swiss R&D institute, Empa has performed “ecobalance” studies in 2007 and again in 2012 to assess exactly how “green” biofuels really are. In both studies Empa concludes “many biofuels based on agricultural products indeed do help to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, but lead to other environmental pollution, such as too much acid in the soil and polluted (over-fertilised) lakes and rivers.” As an example nitrogen fertilizers emitted into the atmosphere in the production of heavy feeders such as corn crops increase nitrous oxide emissions from agricultural lands, which already account for 68 per cent of all nitrous oxide in the U.S. annually.

From the Country Guide website: Scientists make ethanol without corn or other crops

On the other hand some perennial crops that are among the frontrunners as potential biofuel crops, such as miscanthus, have been shown to reduce the amount of nitrogen which escapes into the environment. A four-year University of Illinois study that compared miscanthus, switchgrass, and mixed prairie species to typical corn-corn-soybean rotations, showed each of the perennial crops were highly efficient at reducing nitrogen losses, with miscanthus having the greatest yield. Perennial grasses also have been shown to lower atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions.

The future of biofuels

Several plants are touted as the next “wonder” crop for biofuel production. Miscanthus, camelina, reed canarygrass, napiergrass, giant reed and sorghum are just some of the many plant species that are being considered as potential biofuel crops. There are suggestions that biofuels could also be made from weeds such as stinkweed (also known as pennycress) and perennial prairie grasses such as switchgrass.

In British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario there is more emphasis on woody biomass from fast growing willows and poplars for cellulosic biofuel production.

There is huge potential for cellulosic ethanol production on the Prairies, where there is an abundant supply of biomass in the form of crop residue such as wheat straw, oat straw and hulls. It is estimated that agricultural residues in Manitoba could produce around 1.1 billion litres of bioethanol annually. The key is the development of localized processing capability and the development of a cheap and easy way to scale up production to a commercial scale.

A huge national network called BioFuelNet is currently engaged in biofuel research across Canada to try and help make that happen. Over the next five years Centres of Excellence, involving universities and government research facilities from coast to coast, will work on 69 projects. At the University of Manitoba, Levin heads up the Prairie component, which is concentrating on using microorganisms to convert agricultural biomass into drop-in type biofuels.

Other centres are looking at different production methods. The one that currently predominates in the biofuel industry is a thermo-chemical process that uses heat and pressure, but it’s energy intensive and raises the carbon footprint of the resulting fuel.

The microbial method, says Levin, requires much lower energy inputs and has a better energy balance and lower carbon footprint. “There is also much more control over the type of molecules that are being produced and that microbial conversion of sugars or glycerol are coming from renewable sources such as agricultural industry by-products and making fuels that are equivalent to petroleum based fuels but from a biological source,” he says. “It’s a very green technology and the potential is huge for Manitoba if we can demonstrate that we can grow these organisms on a larger scale that would be needed for an industrial application and extract the molecules to make the fuels and demonstrate that they can work as well as petroleum.”

Similar work in the U.S. used the microbe Ceriporiopsis subvermispora, known as a white rot fungus, to break down different parts of corn stover. Researchers were able to extract up to 30 per cent more sugar from the leaves and 50 per cent more from the stalks and cobs than other methods.

The jury is still out on which of these many potential feed stocks will ultimately be commercially viable. “There’s all kinds of ideas and technologies and options out there that are worth exploring, but nobody has a winner yet,” says Levin.

One thing that’s certain is that biofuels are going to be a vital component of the energy mix in the future, and farmers have a hugely exciting role to play in making sure the lights stay on.

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