international year of - agcanada...4 farming smarter / spring 2016 growing new ideas / growing...

SPRING 2016 EdItIoN

MRLs – Minefield For Exporters/Growers »10On-Farm Data Requires Scruitiny »18Funds for Agriculture Education »25

IntERnAtIOnAL YEAR OF

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FarmingSmarter/SPring2016 3

GM’s Message — Let’s Roll. . . . . . . . 4

Farming Smarter Salutes a Champion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Meet Farming Smarter’s New Office Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Wheat Breeding, Past, Present and Future. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

The Nurse That Loves Farming . . . . 8

MRLs — A Minefield For Exporters, Including Growing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Invest in Knowledge Generator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Water Programs Available to Farms A Summary of Programs to Access. . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Orville Yanke Award 2015 — Career Dedicated to Soild Conservation Recognized. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

On-Farm Data Requires Scrutiny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Evolution of Researach Tracking on Home Ground. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Microbial Management — A New Tool in Crop Input Efficiency. . . . . 22

CAHRC Promotes Ag Sector Employment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

One Spray Works for Two Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Unexpected Funds Enhance Agriculture Education. . . . . . . . . . . 25

Grain Corn Project Surprises Researchers . . . . . . . . . . 26

Canadian Research for Canadian Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . 28

International Year of the Pulses Kicks Off at Toronto Gala . . . . . . . . 30

Alberta is Leading on Climate Change and Creating Jobs with Solar Power. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Book Review: BLINK — The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. . . . 32

Examine Your Filters Regularly . . . 33

Five Key Points to Optimize Canola Yield. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Photo Gallery: Agritechnica 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Contents SPRING 2016 EDITION

Farming.Smarter.is.published.bi-annually.by..Farm.Business.Communications.for.Farming.Smarter,..#100,.5401.–.1st.Ave ..S .,..Lethbridge,.AB.T1J.4P4...with.the.support.from.the.Agriculture..Opportunities.Fund..

Editorial.Board:.Ken.Coles,.Jamie.Puchinger.Editor:.C ..Lacombe

www.farmingsmarter.com

Visit.us.online.for.innovative.agronomic..and.technical.research.information:

Cover photo: In honor of the International Year of Pulses, we give you peas in the field. Photo: farmIng smarter

Pg. 8

Pg. 34

Pg. 28

General Manager Message

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP4 Farming Smarter / SPring 2016

Spring fever is boiling over the rim andI’mveryexcitedtogetbackinthefield.Seeding has always been my favourite

partoffarmingbecauseit’snew,freshandfullof hope. This year, we’re ready to roll with anewperspective,revivedobjectives,somenewprojectsandevensomenewfaces.

The Farming Smarter board and staffworked diligently over the winter develop-inganambitiousplanforthenextfiveyears.It means more growth, a more meaningfulconnectionwithmembersaswellasnewandstrongerrelationshipswithkeypartners.

Perhaps the biggest news is an agree-ment with Lethbridge College gearedtowardbuildingcapacityinappliedresearchand extension tailored to meet southernAlberta opportunities. Core projects suchasnightsprayingandsoilmappingsensorshave come to end, but we are keen to diginto new agronomy projects in hemp, dry-land corn and hail damaged pulse crops.We also hope to dig into canola agronomywith precision planters and split nutrientapplications.

The extension program is also action

packedwithnewPlotHopsnowincludingamealandmorenetworkingopportunities.AfullAlbertaWheatDayisinthemixandtheFarmingSmarterFieldSchoolpromisestobethesummerhighlightfilledwithprac-tical,handsonlearningexperiences.

Bestswishes fora fantasticyearandwelookforwardtoseeingyou!DareIsaystaysafe?h

KenColesGeneral Manager Farming Smarter

Let’s Roll!by KEN COLES

PHOTO: THINKSTOCK

Meet Farming Smarter’s New Office Manager

A new face and a new voice took over managing Farming Smart-er’s finances this winter. Dawne

Wiebe is our new Farming Smarter Office Manager.

“I was attracted to the job because, after working from home for many years, I wanted to participate in a team environ-ment with a common goal. This job also diversifies my experience by introducing me to a different industry,” says Dawne. Prior to working at Farming Smarter, Dawne worked as a contract bookkeeper/office manager for a half dozen different companies including oilfield companies and non-profit organizations. Dawne completed a SAIT Journalism Arts degree before being employed by the Taber Times as a reporter in the early ’90s and eventually moving into advertising sales.

A second child prompted her to oper-ate a child care day home from her house. At this point she also began her career as an oilfield dispatcher and eventually

became a shareholder in an oilfield fluid hauling company. As an active business owner, responsible for finance and bud-geting, she developed and opened her own contract bookkeeping/office man-

agement business that grew to have eight permanent contracts.

As a bank manager’s daughter, Dawne lived most of her life moving from one small Alberta town to another and even spent two years living in the Yukon, where she finished high school. She is an active volunteer with the Taber Minor Hockey Association both as a board member and an executive member (treasurer) of the organization.

In her spare time, Dawne enjoys spending time with her husband, Jason and her two teenage boys, Logan and Gage. The family likes to camp, fish and spend time outdoors. She also likes to ride her horse and has a small furniture refinishing business — Delightful and Distressed. During the winter months, you can often find Dawne at the hockey rink watching her boys play, sitting in front of the fireplace reading a good novel or in her shop working on a piece of fur-niture. h

Farming Smarter / Spring 2016 5GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Farming Smarter Salutes a Champion

R ichard Fritzler served as a founding member of Southern Applied Research Association and Southern Alberta Conservation Association. He

stayed with both organizations as they grew into Farm-ing Smarter.

“I started on the board in 1990 and got on two boards, SARA and SACA,” Fritzler says.

He watched as Alberta Agriculture shrank its research work and firmly believes that local research associations upheld the ability of Alberta farmers to prosper while meeting growing global demand for food.

“My greatest reward for my years of service was the knowledge I gained by sitting on these boards,” Fritzler says. “I feel well rewarded.”

He contends that what he learned about crops, agronomy and best management practices helped make him a successful farmer. But, in addition, he learned fascinating things about people and political processes.

From all the staff and board members that had the honor to work with Richard: “We salute you Richard and thank you. It was a pleasure to work with you.” hPH

OTO

: FAR

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Good People

Dawne Wiebe

6 Farming Smarter / Spring 2016 GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Farming Smarter Conference

Wheat Breeding, Past, Present and Futureby HELEN McMENAMIN

I wishIwerejuststartingmycareer,”Dr.RonDePauwexpressesthatsentimentwheneverhe’saskedabout the futureofcerealbreed-

ing.DePauwretiredfromAgricultureCanadalast year with the moniker the billion-dollarman for the annual royalties brought in fromwheatvarietieshedeveloped.

“There’s never a perfect variety,” he says.“Things are always changing, new insects,newdiseaseissues—thinkaboutfusariumorstriperustandtheUg99strainofstemrustcandevastate crops. Farming practices — directseeding, more diverse crop rotations, fertil-izeruse,straightcutcombining,graindrying,storagesystems—allchangewhat’sneededinwheat varieties. Crop genetics have to fit thecurrentproductiontechnology,”DePauwsays.

Farmerneedsdrovemostof the60cerealvarietiescreditedtoDePauwandhispartners,most notably the game-changer, Barrie, thefirst hard red wheat with high yield and highprotein.AsthemostwidelygrownvarietyonthePrairiesforeightyears(1998to2005),it’sreckonedtohaveboostedfarmincomebyover$800million.

WhenDePauw’steamfoundresistancetoorange blossom wheat midge, it spared theenvironmentwidespreadinsecticideapplica-tionsandgrowers$20millionayearinmidgelossesanddowngrading.But,theresistanceisduetoasinglegene,makingitrelativelyeasyfortheinsecttoovercome,sobreedingworkincludeddevelopingastrategytoprotecttheresistance. Non-resistant seed is included inevery shipment of midge-resistant seed tobecome refuges where the insects can breedsuccessfully and preserve the grain’s resis-tance.Sawfly-resistantLilliandoesn’trequireprotectionforitsresistancebecauseit’sbasedonsolidstemsthatdon’tallowlarvaetogrowandfeed.

End-user demand also drives breedingprograms—StrongfieldandNavigatordurumprovided the gluten and yellow colour buy-ers want. Durum varieties with lower uptakeof cadmium provide food safety assurance toconsumers.

To a breeder, a germplasm line is almostas important as registering a variety — it’sa source of specific traits to include whenthey’re needed. DePauw and his team identi-fied53lines.Somehavebeenusedinprovid-ingdurableresistancetoleaf,stemandyellow

rust,enhancingfusariumresistanceandlower-ingmycotoxinlevelsaswellassproutingresis-tance thatmakesahugedifference toreturnsfromcerealswhenthere’sawetfall.

Grower needs can also be big drivers.Nutrient efficiency, shorter, stronger straw tostand up and ease residue management, butalsoeasierthreshingareonthecurrentlistforprairiebreeders.

“Only 25 to 35 per cent of the nitrogenapplied to wheat is converted to grain,” hesays.“That’sreallypathetic.Weneedtouselessenergyatharvesttoothroughbetterthreshabil-ity—it’sallaboutbushelsperhour,pergallonoffuel.”

Regulations can drive breeders’ efforts.They were happy to see the end of KernelVisualDistinguishability(KVD)astheywerethenfreetopursueothertraits—awidefieldfor Hard Red Spring (HRS). It’s the mostchallenging wheat for breeders because thereare so many parameters to consider — mill-ingquality,bakingquality,aswellasyieldandagronomics.

DePauwplayedabigpartinchangingwheatmarketingwithhisworktointroducetheCan-adaPrairieSpring(CPS)classification,whichwill expand next crop year to include wheatscurrently registered as HRS varieties, but on

the low side for protein and gluten strength.Buyers want more uniformity and predict-able gluten strength. He stresses that this isredesignation,notderegistration.For farmerswhere the likelihood of hard red not makingNo.1isquitehigh,there’softenmoremoneyandlessriskgrowingCPSwheat,whichhasahigheryieldpotentialandlesspricedifferencebetweenNo.1andNo.2grades.

Technologies have changed the speed ofplant breeding. During his PhD work, a hugecomputertookweekstocalculatetraitvaluesinDePauw’slines.

For25years,doubledhaploidshavecutthetime to develop a variety. Plants from wheatflorets pollinated with corn and grown in tis-sue cultures carry only mother plant genes sobreedersdon’thavetoeliminateofftypes.Now,37double-haploidwheatvarietiesaregrownonmorethan30percentofprairiewheatacreage.

Thirtyyearsago,breedersatSwiftCurrentweredelightedtohaveanear infra-red(NIR)systemfornon-destructiveproteintesting.Now,markerassistedbreeding letsbreeders identifyspecific traits with non-destructive DNA test-ing — a simple matter now with machinesaboutthesizeofanofficeprinter.Andadrone-mounted,spectralreflectancecamerathatfliesovertheplotsreplacedtheNIRmachine.

Nomatterhowgoodthetechnology,peopleareessential. “Westillneedgood,well-trained

“

Dr. DePauw spoke at Farming Smarter’s conference in Lethbridge Dec. 8, 2015. PHOTOS FARMING SMARTER

people — boots in the field and hands in the pan,” says DePauw. He includes breeders, tech-nicians, post-docs and others. He worked with breeders and other scientists at the University of Saskatchewan, other Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) stations and provincial cen-tres. He’s a big supporter of the Western Grains Foundation and the prairie grain commissions for their involvement in and support for breed-ing work.

“Since the early ’90s, we’ve doubled the rate of our average yield improvement to .7 per cent a year. Canada is near the top, with Argentina and China in productivity increases, but the advantage is fragile.”

Farmers should consider where they want to get varieties in future, DePauw advises. Big corporations have been in and out of wheat breeding. Limagrain and Bayer are involved now, but innovation and long-term competi-tiveness — yield increases and strong steward-ship of resources requires long-term, focused commitment. Farmers can play a role individu-ally and through research organizations.

He challenges growers to innovate. “At high prices, we boost inputs and production goes up, so we have idle capacity,” he says. “We have the genetics, agronomy and weather to pro-

duce more. I challenge you to put some of that idle capacity to use. Put the groceries to some strong-strawed varieties and try to push them over. I think we can get dryland wheat yields over 100 bushels and 150 under irrigation.

Since retiring from AAFC, DePauw joined SeCan as Science Advisor, working to create synergy among universities, seed companies, farmers, and government to speed the devel-opment and introduction of the best cereal genetics for Canadian farmers. Maybe it’s not his ideal, though, “the opportunities, the tools we have and coming on stream are so much greater now. I really wish I was starting my career over again.”

Wheat WisdomDr. Ron DePauw studied the chemical con-stituents and other characteristics of wheat for 50 years and finds no credibility at all in the claims of food faddists promoting ideas that wheat, its gluten content or the characteristics of its protein have changed in the last 50 or 100 years. “It hasn’t changed,” he says. h


dr. Ron dePauw studied the chemical constituents and other characteristics of wheat for 50 years and finds no credibility at all in the claims of food faddists promoting ideas that wheat, its gluten content or the characteristics of its protein have changed in the last 50 or 100 years. “it’s hasn’t changed,” he says.

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GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Agvocacy

You can imagine the conversation across a fenceline or through a truck window between a couple of long-time farmers: “So there’s this woman — a nurse —

talking all over the internet about farming. Didn’t grow up farming and hasn’t been responsible for a farm one day in her life. And she thinks she can help agriculture! What the heck does she know?!”

Turns out the ‘she’ in question — southern Albertan farm wife, mother and part-time blogger, Sarah Schultz — knows a lot. She knows how powerful today’s internet is in the lives of primary purchasers; she knows how to leverage social media; she knows how to wield her increasing influ-ence. Mock her and minimize her if you will (you wouldn’t be the first or the last) but understand that in doing so, you make yourself appear very behind the times. And, know that your negative attitude could come at significant cost to the agriculture industry. Despite negative push-back from the anti-ag and (unfortunately) the ag community too, Schultz is standing up firmly, confidently and surprisingly effectively for agriculture.

Schultz is a 32-year-old mom of two (and ¾) kids and wife to a fourth generation grain and oilseed farmer in Wheatland County, Alberta. She is also the flying fin-gers behind the NurseLovesFarmer blog, a vocal, candid, intensely personal online diary/editorial about every-thing from pregnancy, recipes and photography to — you

guessed it — agriculture’s most controversial issues. NurseLovesFarmer consistently captures tens of thousands of ‘hits’ (reads) per month, with top postings reaching 100,000 or more hits (a single photo, in fact, reached 1.1 million Facebook readers).

“I blog about agriculture because my heart is tied to our farm and this way of life,” says Schultz. “Blogging is part of my definition of sustainability in agriculture: I want to fight to make sure our kids get all the options that my husband had and more. The worst case scenario would be that food activists force change in policy; which would limit my kids’ choices. I feel personally invested in agriculture’s success. To see this industry being torn apart with flat out lies and misinformation, I almost see it as my obligation or duty to use my social media influence to share the good stuff.”

Before you pass Schultz off as ‘just a mom,’ consider this: she believes the fact that her readers see her as ‘just a mom’ is her biggest advantage, and the experts agree.

“When you are open and personal on your blog you make a connection with your readers that fosters trust. When a blogger blogs about a product or a political per-spective or an opinion, readers have a tendency to trust the information simply because they like the person,” says Schultz.

‘Mommy Bloggers’ — typically 30- to 45-year-old moth-ers of young children who write online posts on everything

8 Farming Smarter / SPring 2016

The Nurse That Loves Farming

PHOTO: NuRSE LOvES fARmER

bY Madeleine baerg


from lifestyle to parenting to politics — boast enormous readership in the social media world and impressive influence in public relations and marketing spheres. Unlike corporate blogs which clearly speak from a company to a consumer, Mommy Blogs read a whole lot more like advice from a close friend or a sister.

“‘Mommy bloggers’ represent an important bridge between home, family and parenting brands and their customers. Mom blogs have the power of reach and trust, and can be one of the most effec-tive brand advocacy tools,” writes the ABBI PR Agency.

Schultz blogged about personal topics for two years before she stepped almost accidentally into the ring of what she calls ‘agvocacy’ (agriculture advocacy). Late one night three years ago, she happened on an anti-GMO twitter party run by the Mamavation blog. While Mamavation feels small and personal, it is in fact a highly organized, very well-funded blogging network of over 10,000 self-titled ‘food crusaders’ who together promote anti-GMO and anti-ag campaigns.

“The twitter party targeted the Similac company demanding they remove GMOs from their baby formula. I knew we grew GMO crops on our farm but I was new to agriculture so I didn’t know much about them. It really worried me how scared people were; that many things they said as ‘fact’ I was pretty sure weren’t actually fact at all. And, I didn’t like that they were say-ing things about what farmers like us do on our farms. So I talked it over with my husband and then I looked into writing a response,” she says.

Since then, Schultz has blogged about the gluten-free movement, fear-based marketing, organics, ‘wheat bullying,’ farrowing crates, the ‘dirty dozen,’ ‘toxic’ wheat, glyphosate, hormones in food and many, many more topics anti-ag activists target.

“I am pro-food choice. I don’t care what you eat or what you feed your kids. I think it’s great we have those choices. But don’t make me feel bad about my choices and don’t spread fear.”

Her writing is science-based, down-to-earth and highly personal. She’s not at all shy about admitting that she’s not a farmer, a scientist, or a topic expert. Instead, she invites readers to learn alongside her.

“I’ve never claimed to be an expert. Sharing what I learn is my whole basis for communicating about ag. I want to get people think-ing and asking questions instead of being afraid and buying into fear-mongering,” she explains.

Her style of rapport-based agvocating is vitally important, she thinks.

“By far, the anti-ag side is more organized, has better network-ing, is bigger, stronger, louder, trendier and more sexy. They hit you right in the emotions, especially if you are a parent and they have star power, like Gwyneth Paltrow talking on Capital Hill. What do we have? We have science on our side. But you can’t lead with science because people need to connect on a personal level. So that’s where someone like me comes in. If people connect with me, then they are able to listen to the other side of the story.”

Schultz’s commitment to pro-agriculture blogging comes at a price. She’s been called an irresponsible blogger, a pawn, a shill to big ag, a stalker, a bad mother. She’s been slammed on other’s blogs and

websites; she’s had her nursing career threatened; she’s read count-less comments to her posts that have left her shaky or nauseous. Peo-ple assume her comments and opinions are paid advertising (they’re not), or that she is on salary with Monsanto (she’s not).

“It’s an emotional roller coaster. I’ve had the highest of highs and the lowest of lows because of blogging. It took a long time to learn how to deal with hurtful and hateful attacks. There have been many times I wanted to throw my hands up and quit,” she says. “The bigger picture keeps me in it. I’m constantly reminded that we can’t let them win.The anti-ag side is so passionate and they will never, never give up. We have to share our side of the story so the correct information is there too.”

While one would expect anti-ag activists to disagree – perhaps even unkindly — with Schultz’s blogging, it is not just ‘the other side’ that attacks her. There have been more than a few times that the most painful and aggressive comments come from within the agriculture industry.

“Ninety-five per cent of comments from farmers are really posi-tive. But here’s where the plot thickens: in the last six to nine months,

it has been farmers who have been my biggest critics. There’s been name calling and swearing; parody accounts have been made up about me; they’ve made fun of my appearance. It’s been really personal.”

The post that seems to have started the issue was about the amount of glyphosate Schultz’s husband sprays on their crop. Farmers, particularly from the Corn Belt, said she was ‘lying,’ that there was no way they could spray so little glyphosate, and that she was mak-ing everyone else look bad.

Closer to home, her blog has been attacked as ‘silly’ and ‘pointless’ by some involved in Alberta’s agriculture industry. (Ironically, Bill 6 found some of these same farmers suddenly following in Schultz’s agvocating shoes.)

“I won’t say it hasn’t been hard. I believe you are supposed to stand together as an industry. Our con-sumers and opponents can see it when we are picking at each other inside the industry,” she says.

“A lot of what I hear is, ‘You didn’t grow up on a farm. You don’t know nothing.’ But I think that is my strong suit. I didn’t grow up on a farm, so I understand consumers’ questions and perspectives. Farmers can talk to farmers. But maybe they need people like me to talk to their consumers.”

In some cases, though, Schultz thinks farmers shouldn’t be talk-ing to consumers at all.

“If you can’t engage with people positively and respectfully, you shouldn’t attempt to agvocate,” she says. “How you deliver the mes-sage is probably more important than the message itself. You have to meet people where they are at, find common ground, build some personal connection with them. There’s a huge difference between being an advocate and an activist.”

“I’m not here to convince anyone of anything. The thing is, I don’t want to change minds. Well, I do… but I want to do it by respectfully providing science-based information so that it might get my ‘opponents’ at least thinking about things.” h

“I am pro-food choice. I don’t care what you eat or what you feed your kids. I think it’s great we have those choices. But don’t make me feel bad about my choices and don’t spread fear.”

— Sarah Schultz


News

MRLs — maximum residue limits — the highest concentrations of a pesticide or medication allowed in a foodstuff — have become a minefield for anyone shipping commodity crops out

of the country. Suddenly it seems, even long-established products like glyphosate are an issue in export grains.

The problem is that a growing number of importing countries have developed their own MRLs and they can reject products that don’t meet their standards when they arrive at port. Shipping a non-compliant cargo leaves the exporting company with a huge bill for freight, return or destruction of as much as 60,000 tonnes, possible loss of their export license and loss of credibility of the company and of Canada’s reputation as a safe producer.

For the last 50 years, the Codex Alimentarius (usually just called the Codex) has been the food standards, including MRLs, for world trade between over 180 countries. But, the expert panels have a huge backlog and long delays to develop new standards have led some countries to have health authorities set MRLs. Often, these authorities don’t know what chemicals may be used on imported crops, so the MRL defaults to zero or close to the limit of detection.

Detection is the other side of the coin. Technology for processing crop samples, identifying and measuring pesticides is now extremely sensitive and accurate, measuring as little as one part per billion — that’s one hybrid canola seed in 180 bushels. And the machines are cheap, rug-ged and quick, measuring 260 pesticides in hundreds of samples in a few hours.

“The technology analytical chemists have now is the equivalent of a 100,000 lbs., 760-hp tractor with 1,000-gallon fuel tank delivered for $85,000,” says Ron Pidskalny, of Strategic Vision Consulting, who’s been working with MLR issues for several years. South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China have switched away from the Codex to national stan-dards and Mexico and India are following, says Pidskalny.

Cheap, quick and accurate testing means pesticide residues can be measured at a ship’s destination before unloading. If a pesticide is above the MRL, the cargo is not legal for trade and the shipper faces huge costs. All Canadian producers of that crop may be affected.

Fruit and vegetable growers have dealt with this issue for years. Some U.S. states set their own tolerances for horticulture crops like cherries and blueberries. The regulations are so complex, growers have to know where their produce will be sold before the season begins so they can avoid problematic pesticides.

The issues are newer for bulk grains. Preharvest desiccants in pulse crops, because they’re used close to harvest, can be risky. Pulse Canada has a chart showing which countries accept what crops treated with each preharvest product. They advise checking with buyers before using desiccants to be sure the crop and chemical combination can be safely shipped to its likely destination.

The Canola Council has its Keep it Clean program to ensure canola meets the standards of key importers. The main issue for 2016 is quin-clorac, the active ingredient in Clever to control cleavers, can result in residues China will not accept. The Canola Council advises against using it.

According to Pidskalny, there was a close call in the wheat market last year when the U.S. had no MRL for the plant growth regulator, Manipulator. Canada could have lost an $800 million-dollar market, but exporters decided to segregate treated grain.

You can help protect markets. Double check you’re using a registered product at the labeled rate, crop stage and preharvest interval. Talk to your producer group. Let them know your issues in the field so they can address them with our international trade partners. “You can’t sit back and hope things improve,” he says. “You have to tell them what you need.” h


MRLs — A Minefield For Exporters, Including Growersby HELEN McMENAMIM

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Farming Smarter

F arming Smarter supports your farm and your bank account by building, not just better farms, but better farmers. Chances

are you learned something from a Farming Smarter event that changed your farm. Now it may be time for you to invest in building a better Farming Smarter.

With rapidly evolving technology and infor-mation now king, knowledge is what separates the best (and most profitable) producers today from the rest. Luckily, getting hold of that knowledge doesn’t have to be quite as daunting as it might sound. Farming Smarter demon-strates it is a southern Alberta producers’ best ally, conducting applied research applicable on-farm and closing communication gaps between producers, scientists and the knowledge they need to improve agricultural production.

“Because we don’t actually charge a fee for membership, it’s really hard to truly have a two way connection with the people we’re trying to help. We know they see value in what we’re doing and choose to attend our events or get on our email list,” says Ken Coles, Farming Smarter’s general manager. “What I’m challenging our staff, our Board, our entire organization to think about is, given the reductions in public grants and the inherent level of instability of our funding, how do we look to farmers and to innovative and progressive agronomists/consultants — those people who are getting the most benefit from us — for stability both financially and in purpose?”

“Whoa,” you might be saying. “Is he saying I should pay to get information from Farming Smarter? Why would I buy the cow when right now I’m getting that milk for free?”

Actually, it turns out Coles isn’t nuts or naïve: critical-thinking and informed produc-ers will quickly realise there are some pretty good reasons to shift Farming Smarter’s cur-rent governance model and practices regarding ‘membership.’ Yes, that might mean you playing a role in helping financially support Farming Smarter’s work. However, doing so will prove worth your while.

“We’ve got an opportunity to challenge con-ventional notions of how a group, specifically a non-profit, operates and runs,” says Coles. “I truly believe I’ve taken Farming Smarter as far as I can in its current structure. We’ve built a great brand and we’re doing great work, but if we want to continue to grow we have to be creative and embrace another way of operating.”

Board governance consultant Carla Rhyant adds, “How you create engagement is by creat-ing ownership. If someone feels like they have skin in the game, like they’ve been part of build-ing something, they’ll want to see the goals accomplished and efforts come to fruition.”

Farming Smarter is a non-profit. That said, the only difference between a non-profit and a for-profit business is that a for-profit pays its owners. But consider this: if knowledge is a valuable form of currency these days, Farming Smarter most definitely pays.

Take that logic a step further: if a for-profit pays its owners and Farming Smarter pays, those farmers and agronomists who benefit most from the knowledge payout could be con-sidered Farming Smarter’s ‘owners.’ As owners’ those individuals need both rights and responsi-bilities above the general public.

Rather than waiting on the sidelines to pas-sively receive knowledge distributed by Farm-ing Smarter, the owners should have the right to exclusive benefits: first and/or best access to information, the right to actively direct the organization’s goals and efforts, opportunities to participate in on-farm research, and/or more.

“We have a lot of ambitious objectives. The vision we’ve got is to work towards true engage-ment where a core group of individuals feel a sense of ownership towards this organization and are part of directing it. They in turn get ben-efits. We have ideas of how that could look, but part of that would need to be developed through engagement with producers,” says Coles.

Of course, ownership rights come with responsibilities: those who feel ownership of Farming Smarter would need to step up to

ensure the ongoing sustainability and health of the organization.

“Last year we had big cuts in government funding and huge funding delays. Who looks out for the health of the organization? Putting all our eggs in the government funding basket makes us awfully unstable,” says Coles. But, he stresses, a membership fee is about much more than just monetary stability.

“If we had a few hundred people honestly taking a stake in ownership, even beyond sta-bility and funding it could be a tremendously powerful group actively advocating for the orga-nization. When you tangibly own something, you invest your efforts and energy too. Just imagine what we could get done,” says Coles.

Rhyant agrees. “No matter who the funder is, they all look at measurables. The more active and engaged people are in an organization, the more seriously a funder takes you. The more momentum you have within the organisation, the more support you are going to have from industry and government because funders will say, ‘Well, there’s obviously value there.’”

Farming Smarter’s Board of Directors shapes the organization’s direction in a manner that represents members. This task is virtually impossible, given that the producers Farming Smarter represents are currently mostly unseen and unheard.

“We have 1,700 people that come to our events; 900 people on our mailing list. We call those people our members, but I don’t think any of them know they are members of Farm-ing Smarter. If you don’t have a formalized relationship, they won’t feel a vested interest in how it runs. And if you don’t have it clearly


Invest in Knowledge Generatorby MADELEINE bAERG

Agricultural research takes specialized equipment and we all know that special also means special price. PHOTO: FARMING SMARTER


defined, how can a Board represent them?” asks Coles.

Coles has had some very preliminary, casual conversations with some producers about options to increase producer buy-in and engagement, including the idea of paid mem-bership. The vast majority of people polled have not balked at the idea, he says.

“People are willing to pay for things of value, but we need to provide a framework for them to do it, and clear benefits to make them buy-in.”

“One of the key things I’ve seen through my research is how destructive it is to allow silos to form,” says Rhyant. “If we as produc-ers can come together collectively to support high quality organizations that are leaders in the community, we’ll have a chance of solving some of the bigger picture issues. A lot of farm-ers prioritize being strong, independent, indi-vidual. But in this day and age, that’s not how we can operate anymore. If you’re not staying up to date and you’re not looking at leading edge issues, you’re going to be left in the dust.”

Farming Smarter makes it easy to stay at the forefront. That should be worth something. h

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Farming Smarter discovers the challenges of a new crop from planting to harvest so that farmers can decide whether or not to try it on-farm. PHOTO: FARmING SmARTER


Stewardship Funding

Water management is a critical component of every agricultural operation, whether managing water for crop and animal production or protecting water sources from contamination.

There are several programs available to assist agricultural operations in Alberta with water management.

Growing Forward 2 (GF2) is a federal-provincial-territorial partner-ship offering support to drive profitability in Canadian agriculture. Since water plays a big role in the operation and profitability of a farm, many GF2 programs relate directly to agricultural water matters.

The Regional Water Supply Program is a GF2 program that funds up to $90,000 toward strategic studies to determine if new regional water sup-ply infrastructure is achievable for multi-users such as rural municipalities, first nations, Métis settlements and water co-operatives. “The program looks into the technical feasibility of connecting folks on private systems into one multi-user system,” states Jamie Wuite, Executive Director, Irriga-tion and Farm Water Division.

The purpose of the GF2 Irrigation Efficiency Program is to assist pro-ducers with eligible costs incurred when upgrading an existing irrigation system from high pressure to low pressure, for the purpose of improv-ing the efficiency of energy and water use. Rod Bennett, Director of the Irrigation Management Branch, Agriculture and Forestry, explained that converting from high to low pressure systems can lead to 30 to 40 per cent potential savings on energy costs. The average water savings can be as high as 225 mm when converting from a gravity system to a low pressure system.

Bennett explains the recent revisions to the Irrigation Efficiency Pro-

gram, “The maximum amount payable for an upgrade from a gravity or side-wheel system to a new low pressure center pivot (LPCP) system increased to $15,000 and eligible producers may now apply for one grant payment in each fiscal year of the five year program (2013-18).” Producers who are not eligible for the LPCP conversion may apply for reimbursement of 40 per cent of equipment upgrade costs to a maximum of $5,000. In the first three years of the five year GF2, producers received over $2 million through in the efficiency program.

The GF2 On-Farm Water Management Program provides technical assistance to agricultural producers to complete a Long-Term Water Man-agement Plan (LTWMP) and shares the cost of related enhancements of the on-farm water supply management. “The long-term water manage-ment plan looks at current farm water supply and future water needs to determine if there is enough water to meet the requirements. If there is not, we look at ways to expand the water supply,” states Kristen Lorenz, Director of the Farm Water Supply Branch, Agriculture and Forestry.

With a long term water plan approved by a water specialist, the pro-ducer can apply for reimbursement of one third of expenses to a maxi-mum of $5,000 for standard incentive projects such as construction of wells or dugouts. Alternatively, the producer can apply for assistance under the special incentive program for projects such as well decommis-sioning or well pit conversions, for reimbursement of up to 50 per cent of expenses. “We have increased the number of wells that qualify for reimbursement under the decommissioning program, in hopes of getting more wells decommissioned and improving protection of groundwater supplies,” states Lorenz.


Water Programs Available to FarmsA Summary of Programs to Accessby DONNA TROTTIER P. AG

Off-stream watering systems fall under government water programs along with a host of other water use, protection and conservation programs. PHOTO: FARmING SmARTER


The On-Farm Stewardship Program supports the implementation of beneficial management practices (BMPs) to reduce the risk of agricul-tural contaminants entering surface and ground water supplies.

“The stewardship funding concentrates on areas where we will get the biggest bang for our buck, in other words, toward projects that maximize protection of the water resources,” states Dale Chrapko, Sec-tion Leader, Environmental Programming Section, Agriculture and Forestry.

The program provides grants on a cost-share basis for projects such as riparian fencing, wetland restoration and livestock runoff control, to a maximum of $50,000 for each applicant over the program term (2013-18).

The Agricultural Watershed Enhancement Program (AWE) supports group projects delivering extension programs that promote wetland restoration and riparian health BMPs in high risk watershed areas. With support from the group, landowners can then apply for funding under the AWE, to complete projects such as run-on and run-off controls or winter watering systems that contribute to goals of the group.

“All Growing Forward 2 programs have a pre-planning phase and need approval before starting any construction,” Jamie Wuite points out. More information on each activity and the specific qualification requirements can be found at www.growingforward.alberta.ca/pro-grams.

Outside of the GF2 programs, there is the Water Pumping Program that has a 30-year history across Alberta. The pumping program was originally set up to help producers obtain water for livestock. The program has pumps

and a series of six inch pipes that are for rent at a cost of $500 to fill a dug-out or to consolidate dugouts. The Agriculture and Forestry department can provide guidance on obtaining a diversion license if one is required.

The Working Well Program is designed to ensure safe and secure groundwater supplies for water well users in Alberta. “Working Well is a collaborative effort that delivers community-based workshops, e-learning modules and other tools, to provide well owners with the information they need to properly care for their wells,” states Lorenz. Over 4,600 people have participated in a Working Well workshop since the program began in 2008. Visit workingwell.alberta.ca for resources on managing and main-taining water wells.

Alberta’s Water for Life strategy is the foundation behind many of the water programs mentioned. Projects completed and actions taken as a result of the farm water programs will weigh in on the goals of the Water for Life strategy; safe, secure drinking water, healthy aquatic ecosystems, reliable, quality water supplies for a sustainable economy and water con-servation.

Wuite was proud to share the fact that the irrigation sector has been a big player in the improvements to water conservation and efficiency in the province, exceeding its target of 30 per cent improvement. “When targets are met in one sector, it allows us to shift our resources toward other sec-tors that need attention,” states Wuite.

Agricultural producers are encouraged to take advantage of the fund-ing and resources available through the water programs, in order to benefit their operations, but also to be a partner in the enhancement of Alberta’s water resource management. h

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R ob Dunn says it was really just a matter of being in the “right place at the right time” that led him into a life-time career

of helping western Canadian farmers find the skills and tools to implement soil conserving farming practices over the past 30 years.

Dunn, who retired from Alberta Agricul-ture in 2014 and is now a private consultant based in Lethbridge, says he just happened on the scene back in the late ’80s, as researchers, farmers and technology were joining forces to explore the new conservation farming ter-ritory.

“It really wasn’t that I did anything spec-tacular,” says Dunn. “It was just that the time was right for change and the opportunity was there for me get involved.” He went along for the ride.

Dunn’s low key and modest approach, downplay the important contribution he has made to research and extension over a 30-year career as one of the front-line soldiers of what amounted to a conservation farm-ing revolution. His contributions during 30 years as a southern Alberta soil conservation specialist were recently recognized by Farm-ing Smarter as Dunn was presented with the Orville Yanke Award recognizing leadership in advancing soil conservation measures. The award is named after long-time Medicine Hat-area farmer Orville Yanke who himself was a pioneer for his more than 20 years of leadership in developing and promoting innovative soil conservation and reduced till-age practices.

Dunn began his agricultural career with a three-year stint as an agrologist with Mon-santo Canada, before taking a post in 1985 as district agriculturist with Alberta Agriculture based at Stettler in central Alberta.

“Interest in conservation farming mea-sures were just starting to take shape in the late 1980s,” says Dunn. Senator Herb Spar-row brought the issue of soil degradation to national attention with his Soil at Risk paper. Agriculture Canada researchers, such as Dr. Wayne Lindwall at the Lethbridge Research Centre, had already been involved with suc-cessful research looking at continuous crop-ping systems and the provincial government was developing programs to bring greater awareness to farmers about the potential of conservation farming.

“So in 1990, the government created at that time a temporary position for a soil conserva-tion specialist in Lethbridge and I was inter-ested,” says Dunn. And the rest, as they say, is history.

That temporary position eventually lead to a full time position with Alberta Agriculture’s Conservation and Development Branch, where Dunn spent most of the next 25 years initially working in front-line research and extension efforts with producers introducing concepts of conservation farming, and later in policy and land-use planning roles.

Dunn says the focus in the early days was to show producers alternatives to the long-stand-ing conventional farming system commonly based on a simple crop/fallow, tillage-based rotation.

Machinery manufacturers were working to develop new equipment to fit direct seeding systems and revolutionary herbicide technol-ogy with a chemical compound known as glyphosate was introduced providing an impor-tant tool for controlling weeds in the absence of tillage.

At about the same time, pulse crops, such as

peas, emerged as viable and economic addition to help implement extended crop rotations.

“So we had all these things happening and a growing interest among producers to see how and where these conservation farming practices would fit on their farms,” says Dunn. While there was a slightly slower rate of adoption in the dryer brown soil zone, the new farming measurers were more quickly embraced by farmers in the dark brown soil zone.

While wide spread adoption of soil conser-vation farming has become commonplace today across not only Western Canada, but most of the world, Dunn says there is still another chap-ter to be written.

“I believe what is left to do now is to get a better understanding of the long term impli-cations of no-till and conservation farming practices,” says Dunn. “While the impact has definitely been positive, there may also be some negative aspects. So what are the impacts? Is there still a place for tillage at some point after 10, 20 or 30 years of no till? What is happening to the soil biology? So as farmers and research-ers go forward, these are some of the questions that need to be looked at.” h

Orville Yanke Award 2015Career Dedicated to Soil Conservation Recognizedby Lee Hart

rob Dunn is a long-time partner of Farming Smarter that participated in many of our learning events over the years. PHoto: Farming Smarter

groWing neW iDeaS / groWing KnoWLeDge / groWing SteWarDSHiP16 Farming Smarter / SPring 2016

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On-farm Data Requires ScrutinyBy Lewis Baarda

PhOTOs: Farming smarTer

grOWing neW iDeas / grOWing KnOWLeDge / grOWing sTeWarDshiP

Farming Smarter

Understanding land is a big component of farming. What better way to under-stand your land than to interact with

it. To feel it, to dig holes in it, to scrutinize its performance. There is something to be said for rolling up your sleeves and turning a hand-ful of soil through your fingers.

Recent innovations provide farmers with a new set of tools to understand land. Geo-referenced yield maps, aerial imagery and soil sensors offer a cost effective alternative to rigorous grid soil sampling. These layers of information collect data at a high density (as many as 50,000 data points in 160 acres of land). This density allows these layers of data to account for variability in a field at a scale that traditional grid soil sampling cannot approach. With all this data, however, comes the challenge of gleaning knowledge that can help guide decisions at the farm level.

Farming Smarter waded into the world of big data three years ago when it began a study on soil sensors and variable rate technology. The study focussed on soil sensors, specifi-cally those measuring soil electrical conduc-tivity (EC), the Veris and EM38. The team gathered a number of additional layers of data for the 10 fields analyzed including aerial imagery, yield maps and soil samples.

Large datasets must be filtered. Just because data are available and accurate doesn’t mean they should be used to guide management in the field. Data must be taken

in the context of the information it can divulge. Yield data, for example, identifies the productivity of various regions of a field. This may imply something about the soil proper-ties in these regions, but it does not directly tell us how much nitrogen or clay is present in the region. For this, an inference must be made using available data and knowledge.

The primary objectives of the study were to ascertain what meaningful information can be gleaned from all the data collected and to determine if the information obtained is use-

ful to make effective management decisions. To achieve this, available data layers were vet-ted to identify those that best accounted for spatial variability among the fields studied. Additionally, mapped data layers were com-pared to measured data from soil samples to determine if relationships to soil properties were present. This information guided selec-tion of data used to delineate zones.

The study tested five different methods of zone delineation, each based on different input data layers. A number of different data



layers were found to be successful at identify-ing zones that yielded significantly differently. Across the 10 fields studied, the delineation of zones using a combination of EC and yield data was the most effective in this regard. This indicates that mapped field data can effectively identify zones with different soil properties.

However, identifying a unique optimal nitrogen rate for each of these zones proved to be more challenging. With very few excep-

tions, the study found that the yield response to nitrogen did not tend to differ significantly from one zone to another.

These results indicate that while the data gathered for the study could be used to iden-tify zones of productivity, it was a challenge to identify unique optimal rates for each zone. So while the study was able to use available data to better understand soil and yield variability, it had very limited success in outlining a clear management response to this information.

One big challenge with mapped data is that every field is different. Data layers may have different implications from one field to another. And while there may not be a universal strategy for identifying and man-aging zones, every strategy can be tested using deliberate on farm research. The best way to use data to understand land is to roll up you sleeves and reach into the data stream. Feel it, test it and scrutinize its per-formance. h

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Above left: A management zone image generated from raw EM38 EC data. Above right: The raw data map generated from EM38 EC data. PHOTOS: FARMING SMARTER


Farming Smarter

July 3, 6:30 a.m. There is a plot hop this morning followed by

two industry tours this afternoon. Craig is zoom-ing back from Tim’s with the coffee and donuts. Art and George are lugging benches and coolers around and hooking up the trailer to the canopy. Richard is measuring disinfectant for the boot wash. Matt, Carrie and Andy are in the shop gathering papers, shovels, stickers, sample bags and duct tape to get notes, pictures, leaf samples and stem biomass on the trials in Med Hat. Doug, Tony, Jacob and Blaine are out in the plots mow-ing, weeding and trimming them to grid-like per-fection. And we plan to repeat this same thing over the next three days.

Tenyearsagothisscenariowasn’tpossiblebecauseitwouldhavebeentoomuchforRich-ard and Matt to handle on their own. But aseconomies,prioritiesandpersonalitieschange,FarmingSmarterhasevolvedintothemassiveand capable research association it is today.EverytimeIlookbackonwherewearetodayandwhatweevolvedfrom,I’mproudtobeapartofit.

July 3, 9 a.m.Participants are all here, but there’s been some

confusion of dates with the online registrations. Craig wants to head out and join the tour to learn about pea leaf weevil, but all the trucks are in use. Matt, Carrie and Andy are en route.

When our successes happen, they don’tcomeasasteadystreamofconstantimprove-mentlikemostofusimagine.InhisbookInfi-

nite Jest, Author David Foster Wallace writesthat instead “you proceed toward masterythroughaseriesofplateaus,sothere’slikeradi-cal improvement up to a certain plateau andthenwhatlookslikeastall.”Butwedon’tstallbecausewedon’tknowwheretogo—westallbecausewe’repreparing for thenextbig leap.ForFarmingSmarter it looks likeweevolvedsteadilyoverthe last fewyears,but, inreality,our evolution has been the same pattern ofleaps and plateaus. Some of our major leapsinclude amalgamating SARA and SACA; hir-ingapositiontotackleabignewproject likethefieldscaleVariableRateFertilityandpur-chasinganewcombine,cornheaderandrowcrop planter. Through our relationship withLethbridgeCollege,wemovedintotheshopatthecollege;whichgaveusenormouscapacityto work on equipment and process our ownharvest samples for kernel weight, moisture,proteinetc.Fromthevariousskillsofourstaff,

wewiredourSeacanswithlights,builtagraindryerandfinallypaintedourhideousSeacans.We leased the piece of land across the road;which significantly increased our small plotresearch and demonstration capacity. Eachleaphelpedmoveusforwardinsomeway.

July 3, 11 a.m.Andy forgot he has a dentist appointment and

needs to be back before 6 p.m. Matt and Carrie have too much overtime to work late anyway. Art and George are rewiring the trailer for the third time because the brake lights keep cutting out. Craig disappeared and isn’t picking up his phone. Doug and Tony could use his help moving the irri-gation before the afternoon tour. Blaine and Tony just noticed that they need to collect flowering data today or else they might not get to it this week and it will be too late.

Evolution of Research Tracking on Home Groundby MIKE GRETzINGER

This photo shows about 25% of Farming Smarter’s plots in 2015. PHOTOS: FARMING SMARTER

Farming Smarter typically has several summer students working in the field. It is vital that everyone stays on task and records the work.


In physics, they say that for every action is an equal and opposite reaction. It’s the Tao of Farming Smarter. Each leap forward also leads to new challenges. One consequence of more projects is that operations reached the point where memory isn’t always reliable. Did we spray that plot? Did we collect that piece of data? Can we do that tomorrow?

So we started by intensively tracking our data collection for our projects on a chart we taped to a poster board. It worked effectively for about a year. Then, one poster board became two poster boards. Two poster boards became an excel spreadsheet. From Excel, we moved to an internet cloud, but the technology proved more hassle than it was worth. Now the spreadsheets have become a full sized project matrix extending across 4'x8' sheet of plywood known as The Board. It’s mounted on an A frame and casters so we can push it around the shop and it has a sister board for keeping all the datasheets, notes, calendar and reminders. All throughout the year, the Board gets amended to include more projects and more data to keep us moving forward.

July 3, 5 p.m. Andy, Matt and Carrie are arriving back from

the Hat. Art and George help them unload and put away the equipment. Craig spent the afternoon with the chem reps showing them through the demo plots and talking about our management practices. Everyone else headed home because they’re going to stay up late to spray at midnight or get up early to spray at 5 a.m.

Our evolution as a small group showcasing a few demos and research trials grew significantly over the past years. I suspect most farm operations can relate. My first year, we had around 25 projects making up about 1,000 plots. Last year, we seeded approximately 70 research trials consisting of 1,000 treatments with over 3,000 individual plots. The Board started out with just tracking the essen-tials such as the protocol, seeding information, agronomic data, herbicide applications and har-vest date/harvest data. But with so many projects it’s also easy to overlook the simple things behind the scenes. Did that jug of chemical show up? Are the stakes ready? Is the GPS programmed? Do we have extra fertilizer with us? So as we got the hang of using it we found that in order to keep track of everything we truly have to keep track of everything. Now the Board acts as both a record table and a single gigantic checklist. It overwhelms everyone at first sight, but after a few days everyone agrees it’s here to stay… that is until the next big leap! h

This is what The Board looks like at the field site.

SUMMER EVENTS2016

Stay up to date on Farming Smarter event dates, time, places and topics, sign up for our newsletter! Find the sign up form at the bottom of our home page. www.farmingsmarter.com

Plot Hop – June 9, 2016Farming Smarter Lethbridge Field SiteCost: $40 (includes Lunch)9:00am – 1:00pmTopics will refl ect current in-fi eld issues*CCA, CCSC, Pest applicator credits will be off ered

Plot Hop – June 23, 2016Farming Smarter Lethbridge Field SiteCost: $40 (includes Lunch)9:00am – 1:00pmTopics will refl ect current in-fi eld issues*CCA, CCSC, Pest applicator credits will be off ered

Field School – July 5-7, 2016Farming Smarter Lethbridge Field SiteCost: $175 (one day event, pick the day that works best)8:00am – 3:30pm*CCA, CCSC, Pest applicator credits will be off ered

Medicine Hat Tour – July 14, 2016Farming Smarter Medicine Hat Field SiteCost: $40 (includes Lunch)9:00am – 1:00pmTopics will refl ect current in-fi eld issues*CCA, CCSC, Pest applicator credits will be off ered

Alberta Wheat Day – July 21, 2016Farming Smarter Lethbridge Field SiteCost: $40 (includes Lunch)9:00am – 4:00pmTopics will refl ect current in-fi eld issues*CCA, CCSC, Pest applicator credits will be off ered

Disease Plot Hop – July 28, 2016Farming Smarter Lethbridge Field SiteCost: $40 (includes Lunch)9:00am – 1:00pmTopics will refl ect current in-fi eld issues*CCA, CCSC, Pest applicator credits will be off ered


Farming Smarter AGM


W hile earth worms are importantindicatorsofsoilhealth,itisunder-standing and using the millions

and millions of microscopic bugs in the soilthatwilltakewesternCanadianfarmerstothenext level of crop production efficiency, saysanAgricultureCanadaresearcher.

The bug reference is an over simplifica-tion of the complex biological communitiesthat live in the soil, but understanding andmaking better use of the invaluable role ofsoilmicrobeswillhelpfarmersfinetuneman-agementoverthecomingyears,saysDr.LoriPhillips,asoilmicrobiologyresearcherat theHarrowResearchandDevelopCentreinwest-ernOntario.

“Itisjustinthelastfewyearsthatwehavehadtheaffordabletools tobeginto indentifyandbetterunderstandtheroleofsoilmicrobes—bacteriaandfungi,”saysPhillips,whojustreturnedtoCanadaafterworkingforfiveyearsonsimilarresearchinAustralia.

“Up to 50 per cent of applied fertilizernitrogen, forexample,maybeunavailable forcropuptake,” saysPhillips. “Somenitrogen islostfromthesoilbyleachingandgassingoff,while some is locked up in the soil in formsunavailable for plant use. Both processes aredriven by soil biological communities. Ourresearchlooksathowthesecommunitiesregu-latenitrogencyclinginthecroppingsystem.”

Thewholeconceptofmanagingmicrobesin the soil is under study, not only by a net-work of researchers in Canada, but aroundthe world, says Phillips. The objective is toeventuallydevelopon-farmmanagementpre-scriptions that not only enhance populationsofbeneficialmicrobes,butalsolearntohowtomakethebestuseofthesemicrobes.

“Hopefully we can develop prescriptionsforsuchthingsasthetimingandplacementoffertilizerandeventheuseofdifferentcroppingrotationsthatwillhelpfarmersrealizegreaterefficiencyfromtheseinputs,”saysPhillips.“InAustralia, there are some extreme exampleswherenitrogenuseefficiencyisextremelylowranging from 50 to 90 per cent. In Canada itmaybemorelike50percent.Ifwecanbettermanagethetimingandplacementofthatfer-tilizersosoilmicrobescanconvertittoplantavailable nutrients, it can represent a hugebenefittoproducers.”

Although millions-strong in number, soil

microbesareanunseenforceperformingsev-eraldifferentfunctionsinthesoil—mostarecriticaltothebiologicalprocessofproducingcrops.Thesefunctionsinclude:cyclingcarbonby photosynthesis and decomposition; regu-latingplantnutrientsupplyandloss(e.g.N,P,K,Fe);captureandreleaseofgreenhousegasessuch as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrousoxide; improvement of soil structure (aggre-gate stability); degrading pesticides; helpingtoregulatewaterquality(e.g.filtersnutrients);andsuppressingsoilbornediseases.Sounder-standing which microbes do what and howtheydoitisimportantknowledge.

So looking at those that specifically pro-cessnutrients, forexample, it is important toknowhowtheywork.Byfirstidentifyingwhatthese microbes are — giving them names asPhillips says, then understanding what theydointhesoil,researcherscanhelpdirectfarmmanagement practices that make greater useof the beneficial microbes and either avoidor, at least, not encourage the non-beneficialmicrobes that actually contribute to fertilizerlosses.

“Particularlywhenwe talkabout fertilizerplacementwecaninfluencemicrobialpopula-tions,” she says. “With the proper placementwe can enhance the populations we do want

and not feed those we don’t want. One anal-ogy is rather than throwing out hay that canbeeatenbydeer,wecanplace it so it isonlyavailabletocattle,wherewewantit.”

Microbemanagementisanewleveloffine-tuning crop production management, saysPhillips. It won’t likely lead to doubling cropyield, “but even if it leads to a five or 10 percentincreaseinnitrogenuseefficiency,thatissignificantbenefittofarmers,”saysPhillips.

Studying soil microbes is an exactingprocess. Phillips uses molecular tools in thecomplextaskofidentifyingand“naming”thethousands of microbial communities foundin justa tablespoonofsoil.Advancements intechnology have made the process of DNAsequencing an affordable tool in identifyingthesemicrobialcommunities,saysPhillips.

Usingthosetoolsshe,andotherresearch-ersareabletoidentifythedifferentmicrobialcommunitiesandultimatelytheirroleinpro-cessingnutrientsinthesoil.

“Variousmicrobialcommunitiesarestrati-fiedinthesoil,”saysPhillips.“Differentcom-munities liveatdifferent levels inthesoil.Soby knowing who they are, what they do, andwhere they are, we can advise farmers abouthow to make the best use of their ability toprocessnutrients.”

Microbial Management — A New Tool in Crop Input Efficiencyby LEE HART

How many microbes in a gram of soil?

Millons of individual organisms

10,000 - 50,000 species (mainly invisible)

Only around 1% are identifiedcompared to 80% of plants

1 million genes for N, C, P c.ycle, antibiotic production & pesticide degradation

Microbial group Size estimates

Estimated abundace

(g-1 dry soil)

Species identified

Species estimates

Archaea 0.5-3 μm uncultured 500 >10,000

Bacteria 1-5 μm 106-109 cfu* 11,000 >4,000,000

Microbial group >4 μm 104-109 cfu* 25,000 >1,500,000

Nature Reviews Microbiology 9,628 (September 2011)


Phillips says making more effective use of soil microbes won’t involve dramatic changes in farming practices, but is more about tweaking processes that are used today.

“It involves changing management practices slightly,” she says. “It may involve depth of fertil-izer placement, the strategic use of urease inhibi-tors or the timing of fertilizer... if we tweak them slightly we can gain N-use efficiency.”

Again referring to the Australia experience, Philip says some of the most innovative farmers were already conducting test strips on their fields to evaluate the effect of management changes.

“They can use conventional seeding equipment and perhaps just make changes in fertilizer placement to observe changes,” says Phillips. “By knowing what works or doesn’t work, it can give them confidence to try different treatments.

“With timing, for example, we saw with canola, that a split application of fertilizer might be more effective in increasing fertil-izer efficiency because microbes are at one location at the time of seeding, but a differ-ent location later in the season.”

Phillips says the prescription phase of

this research is still some years away. “It has only been in the past five to 10 years that we have had access to affordable research technology,” says Phillips. “So really we are just in the early stages of identifying these microbial communities and understanding their specific roles in processing nutrients.

“But, the prescriptions will come in the not too distant future that will help farm-ers target crop production management to get optimum performance out of soil microbes and increase efficiency of their crop inputs.” h

CAHRC Promotes Ag Sector Employment SubmITTED

Opportunities for attracting non-traditional workers to agriculture and agri-food

The Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC) works to employ Canadians in the agriculture sector.

“There are limitless opportunities in agriculture and agri-food today,” explains Portia MacDonald-Dewhirst, executive director of CAHRC. “We work to grow the agricultural workforce including initiatives to employ new Canadians and attract groups currently under-represented in the agricul-tural workforce.”

CAHRC’s research found a lack of familiarity with the industry and its needed skill set among employment service agencies as a leading barrier to placing job-seekers in agricultural sector jobs. Other barriers include rural transportation and language barriers.

In support of breaking these barriers, a CAHRC-led pilot project pairs Calgary Catholic Immigrant Society clientele with employers in the area from now through autumn 2016 to establish improved connections between new Canadians and available agriculture jobs.

CAHRC also leads the implementation of the Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food Workforce Action Plan (WAP) designed to improve access to qualified workers. Over 67 implementation partners across all sectors and commodities, with 14 contributing partners support ongoing research efforts. Canada’s National Agriculture and Agri-Food Labour Task Force guides WAP to identify issues and offer solutions.

Keystone Agriculture Producers (KAP), the largest farm policy group in Manitoba, works with CAHRC on foundational research that will provide better agriculture worker training.

“KAP supports the WAP and its recom-mendation for a streamlined agriculture and agri-food workforce program,” said KAP presi-dent Dan Mazier. “The plan offers short-term solutions to our labour shortage, including

addressing concerns about the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and medium and long-term solutions.”

The Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC) is a national, non-profit organization focused on addressing human resource issues facing agricultural busi-nesses across Canada. For more information visit www.cahrc-ccrha.ca. h

PHOTO: THINKSTOcK


Research News

Farmerswon’tsacrificewheatyieldiftheydelaysprayingleafspotforfusariumheadblight. This was the main finding in a

recentlycompletedSaskatchewanandAlbertabasedstudythatlookedattheidealtimingofsprayingforleafspotdiseases.

“Ingeneral,wehaven’tseenanyrealdetri-menttosprayingonthe lateside, in termsofyieldresponse,”saidRandyKutcher,associateprofessor at the University of Saskatchewan.Kutcherwastheco-investigatorontheprojectand Mike Harding, research scientist at theCropDiversificationCentreinBrooks,servedastheAlbertaco-investigatorontheproject.

For the three-year study, which looked atleafspotdiseasesinwheat,researchersstudiedsixsitesthroughoutSaskatchewanandAlberta.The project wrapped up this year and a gradstudentiscompilingtheresults.Theresultswillbepresentedinacoupleofmonths.Thestudywas designed to answer a simple question forgrowers.

“Growers were not convinced that theyneed to spray twice, so generally they sprayat flag leaf timing,” said Kutcher. “That’s therecommendedtimingthatagronomistswouldgive growers if they are really worried aboutleafspot.”

Growers that really worry about fusariumhead blight tend to spray later, because theideal timing to spray for fusarium is about aweek to 10 days after leaf spot spray timing,depending on the year. In order to spray forfusariumheadblight,thespikeneedstobeoutand with the first few anthers emerging fromtheflowers.

“MostpeopleinSaskatchewanandpartsofAlbertaaremoreworriedaboutfusariumheadblightthananythingelse,”saidKutcher.

There’snoneedtospraytwice.“Ourdatashowsthatasingleapplicationat

flowering or head emergence does very well.You shouldn’t lose any yield by delaying thatspraying,”saidKutcher.

If growers do spray their leaf spot controlat the ideal timing for fusarium head blight,theysacrificeabitofleafspotcontrol,butnotenoughtohaveamajorimpact.

ThesixsitesinthestudywereLethbridge,LacombeandBrooksinAlbertaandMelfort,Indian Head and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.Farming Smarter contributed the Lethbridgeresearch.

“Atsomeofthesiteswehadlittleleafspot,sowedidn’tseeabenefittosprayingateithertiming.ThesediseasesareaprobleminPark-landCountyaroundLacombe,butnotascom-moninBrooksorLethbridge,”saidKutcher.

Theresearchersendedupwith15siteyearsofdatainsteadof18.Theylostafewsitesduetohailandonesitewasn’treadythefirstyear.However, all the sites were pretty consistentinthesiteyearsthathadareasonableamountof leafdisease.The2015droughtalsohadanimpactonsitedata.

“You don’t see as much disease when ina drought like that. So there wasn’t much intermsofleafspotcontrolbecausetherewasn’tasmuchduringthedrought.Thedroughtwasthebiggestimpact,”saidKutcher.

Themostprevalentleafspotdiseaseacrossthe prairies is tan spot, followed by septoriaandspotblotch.Allleafspotsreducethepho-tosyntheticareaoftheplant,andcandamagetheflagleaf.

“The flag leaf is important. That’s wherehalf of your yield comes from. If the flag leafisgone,youlosealotofyourphotosynthatesthatshouldgouptothespike,”saidKutcher.

Oncetheflagleafislost,itresultsinfewerseedsorfewerfilledseedsonthewheatplant.Seedsmayform,buttheymaybeshrivelledorlessplump.

Aspartofthestudy,theresearcherslookedat biological control by testing Serenade fun-gicidetoseehoweffectiveitwasandwhethertankmixingitwithasyntheticfungicidewouldbeabenefit.

“We were hoping by tank mixing thebiologicalthatitwouldimproveefficacyandcontrolofdisease,butIdon’tthinkfromwhatI’veseensofarthatwecouldgiveitmuchof

apassinggradeatthispoint.Wehaven’tcom-pleted the analysis so it’s a little preliminaryto say that yet, but it just doesn’t hold upcomparedtothesyntheticsforleafspotcon-trol,”saidKutcher.h

One Spray Works For Two Problemsby ALExIS KIENLEN

PHOTOS: FARmING SmARTER


News

David Hill has his work cut out for him now! He is jointly appointed across the University of Lethbridge and Lethbridge

College as Director of Development for the Southern Alberta Agriculture Program. This ini-tiative brings together and integrates academic training, research and applied research in the areas of agriculture and agribusiness.

“I have a foot in both worlds,” Hill says. What makes this appointment so formidable now is the environment that created it. Hill outlined some of the factors at play: agriculture is an obvi-ous focus for excellence for the University of Lethbridge and Lethbridge College; the global context of agricultural challenges and opportu-nities; southern Alberta’s agricultural strength in primary production and industry activity; Lethbridge’s collection of post-secondary, gov-ernment and non-profit research strength and the region’s involved, inventive community.

Next, money began flowing in a somewhat unexpected way. Cor Van Raay donated $5 mil-lion for the university and college to share and they both managed to find matching funds turn-ing that donation into $10 million. The Mueller family donated $3.1 million to the college and matching funds turned that into $5 million. Next, the Potato Growers of Alberta donated $1 million over five years and again matching funds turned it into $2 million. The grand total of funds directed toward agricultural education, research and excellence hit $17 million by the end of 2015.

“In the course of 12 to 18 months, inter-est from the ag industry into the vital role of post-secondary institutions created a whole new impetus around agriculture that brought significant new resources to what we can do,” he says. “We’ve got $17 million invested in activi-ties, research, applied research and programing that is a real driving force in how we revitalize and improve our existing programming and how we attach that to the role of southern Alberta in meeting the global demands for safe food and nutrition,” Hill says.

The Southern Alberta Agriculture Program has a Vision, “Alberta will become a jurisdiction that is globally renowned for its ability to provide sustainable, high quality, safe food and nutrition.” Hill says that two things support this vision — one is southern Alberta producers that operate sustainably; the other is an environment of inno-vation and entrepreneurship.

The ultimate goal is to increase economic activity in the province related to agriculture through value added and integration into global supply chains.

“Alberta is actually at a really good time where it could focus on agriculture as an engine of growth. It IS a global business,” Hill asserts.

Canada is one of five countries in the world with the resources to grow food for export. But that means Canadians need to ensure our natural resources produce high quality food for export.

“We can intentionally choose to be world leaders,” Hill contends. He explains that while we talk about feeding the world’s billions, we don’t actually have billions of people in Alberta. What we have is high-quality resources in land and water along with political freedom that we can translate into value added food exports for those places in the world where they have more people than resources. This means that how we train young people becomes important to the directions we may take in the future.

“While, as post-secondary institutions, we don’t get to change what happens, we do get to play a significant role in how we train people to enter positions and meet opportunities,” Hill says.

The first outcome the public noticed is the Cor Van Raay Program in Agri-business at Lethbridge College. Hill emphasises that agri-business is not farm management. “Agri-busi-ness is about the global business of agriculture — supply chain logistics, competitive market intelligence, enterprise-wide risk management and agricultural science communication.”

The second might be that University of

Lethbridge hired Dr. Dmytro Yevtushenko as the Potato Research Chair. “He has a skill set that did not exist in southern Alberta, so he adds to the research capacity,” Hill says. There is an Irrigation Research Chair coming to Lethbridge College soon as well.

Also in November 2015, Lethbridge College and University of Lethbridge signed a Memo-randum of Understanding to actively collabo-rate on agricultural programming, research and applied research so that students can complete programs across these institutions.

There is also a new Virtual Center for Agri-cultural Research and Agri-business Innova-tion that started at University of Lethbridge, but is growing. The idea is to create a faculty supported environment for new research to discover possible roles for southern Alberta on the global stage.

When pressed to speculate what the public can watch for over the next couple of years, Hill gave this list. He expects progress in find-ing ways to increase communication among all the scientists working in various organiza-tions and to develop a robust research outreach and communication effort around irrigation and potato science to make southern Alberta stand out.

There should be more graduate students working with industry in the region in agricul-ture and agri-business research; which will help build the bridge between graduates and indus-try’s knowledge demands.

As these initiatives develop, he expects it to change program recruitments and, hopefully, entice the younger generation to consider the career diversity open to them in the agriculture industry.

“There are whole new opportunities in busi-ness risk management, agriculture finance, sup-ply chain logistics, international agreements and law.”

He expects that a framework will be in place to constantly scan for opportunities and gaps to fill. He wants this to evolve into an entity that has a reputation of commitment to agriculture; well connected to community and industry that takes a multi-generational view of the importance of the post-secondary role.

Now we all know that crystal balls aren’t real, but we have a man on it, he is part of a strong team and they have plans. “We’re in this for the long game. These are tenured commitments.” h

Unexpected Funds Enhance Agriculture EducationBy C. LACOmBE

PHOTO: FARmING SmARTER


Research News

Southern Alberta farmers could benefit from the grain corn agronomy project Farming Smarter has in progress. A three-year grain corn project provided interesting results from the first year

of trials.“We believe whole-heartedly that there are two pieces to major

advancements in crops. I would like to think it’s half on the breeding end and half on the agronomy end,” said Ken Coles, general manager of Farming Smarter.

The goal is to determine the best practices for southern Alberta to adapt grain corn to a dryland system. Corn is a developing market in the region. Some farmers in the area are already growing grain corn and companies such as Monsanto and Pioneer Hi-Bred are talking about expanding grain corn to Western Canada. Pioneer recently set up a low heat unit breeding facility outside Lethbridge and corn breeders are focussed on adapting cultivars to Western Canada.

For the grain corn project, Farming Smarter partnered with Brian Beres from Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, Lethbridge, and Manjula Bandara, special crops scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, Brooks. The team will collaborate with Pioneer and Monsanto on the trials. Farming Smarter received some last minute funding in the spring, and ran a few trials in Lethbridge and Medicine Hat

“To me, the Lethbridge site was really interesting,” said Coles.

“Everybody has the idea that corn needs a lot of water. We were at 60 per cent of normal for water last year, but the crop looked incredible,” he said. “I was very impressed with how corn did in a dryland situation. There is a perception that corn requires a lot of moisture. Given that the year we had was both very dry and quite hot, the dryland corn absolutely astonished me with how well it did.”

Last year, the team was still able to get 80 bushel corn on dryland, compared to 20 to 30 bushel wheat that same year. Coles estimates that during a normal year, it might be possible to achieve 100 bushel corn on dryland. Corn may be more drought tolerant than many people think; which would make it a good crop for southern Alberta. Up until now, the corn market in southern Alberta has been more of a silage market.

“There’s been the odd farmer playing around with grain corn, but it has never taken off in a significant way. But there are people growing it for grain and it is expanding on a yearly basis. My experience is that it will continue to expand. I was really impressed with it,” said Coles.

There’s also a built in market, since many feedlots in the area could use corn. Grain corn can increase diversity in the crop rotation, while taking advantage of the hot summer days in southern Alberta.

“We tend to grow a lot of cool season crops that get punished by our hot summers. Heat can be one of the limiting factors for our cool season crops, whereas it is an advantage for a crop like corn,” said Coles.


Grain Corn Project Surprises Researchersby ALExIS KIENLEN

Front plots are 30-inch spacing and 20-inch spacing in the back plots. Early season photo. PHOTOS: FARmING SmARTER


Corn has a great yield potential, and with the great yield, there is a strong chance that farmers can benefit economically. However, the input costs for corn are fairly high.

Farming Smarter will test several agronomic practices to see what will work best in southern Alberta. They tested row spacing comparing 20-inch to 30-inch rows and found that the 20-inch row spacing might be a better fit.

“That’s outside of what anyone is doing here,” said Coles. “That’s kind of cool.”

The group is also adapting variety trials from the Alberta corn com-mittee attempting trials that are normally done with irrigation to find out how cultivars perform on dryland. There’s also a crop sequencing trial where the researchers will determine how corn grows after canola, wheat and soybeans. The team is also exploring the best way to fertilize corn.

“Corn is quite sensitive to seed placed fertilizers, so we’ll have to be cautious with that and look at side banding. Once we get the basic fertili-ties figured out, we’ll have to figure out combinations of seed placed, liq-uid and banded granular and how far away from the seed row you want to band it. There will be a fair bit to learn there and, because corn uses the growing season better, we’ll have to see if there are opportunities for split applications,” said Coles.

The team harvested the corn when the corn was dry in October. “Grain corn is a little bit different. You tend to harvest it wetter than

you store it. We experienced that,” said Coles. The team initially harvested the corn when it was too wet and the kernels started mushing together. When they waited until it was too dry, the corn started cracking.

“What this told me is that we can easily get corn to maturity in a dryland situation and maybe even easier than irrigated because the lack of moisture may help it reach maturity and dry down properly,” said Coles.

Farmers will need to start adapting equipment and getting the right equipment to grow zero-till corn. There might also be a need to play with residue managers, but there is equipment available that can handle zero-till corn.

“There’s more cost in growing corn and it’s more intensive, but if we threw economics at it, I would guarantee you that corn makes a lot of sense. I would like to gain some more experience with this. In our area, there hasn’t been a lot of people doing dryland corn because of the thought that it had to be under irrigation,” said Coles.

But that situation is changing, because the genetics have been released that can make grain corn successful.

“It’s a matter of learning how to grow it properly and making sure we have the storage facilities in place. We have this tremendous market down here with intensive livestock. We have proven data that shows that our growing season is slowly getting longer, so it does make sense to start adapting some of these crops to our area,” said Coles. h

In this late season photo, you can see the well-developed grain corn under dryland conditions in Lethbridge during the 2015 season.

“There’s more cost in growing corn and it’s more intensive, but if we threw economics at it, I would guarantee you that corn makes a lot of sense. I would like to gain some more experience with this. In our area, there hasn’t been a lot of people doing dryland corn because of the thought that it had to be under irrigation.”

— Ken Coles


Partner Profile

28 Farming Smarter / SPring 2016 GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Research is a critical component of suc-cessful agriculture. Take away researchand our practices can become stagnant

or, with changing conditions, even decline.Farming Smarter knows that we need tocontinue quality research and get the resultsto people who use them. The AgriculturalInstituteofCanada(AIC)isanon-profitorga-nization based in Ottawa that advocates fortheseoutcomesandFarmingSmartersupportsachievingthosegoals.

The Agricultural Institute of Canada willcelebrate its 100th anniversary in 2020. In1920, agriculture was a huge part of thiscountry’s economic development, but facedchallenges. “The weather was really not co-operatinganditwasverydifferentthanitwas

inalotofthecountriesthatweresendinguswavesofimmigration.Therewasabigneedtodevelop a capacity for agricultural research,”explained Serge Buy, CEO of the AIC.“People wanted to make sure that there wasanadvocateforagriculturalresearchandthatthere was a way to disseminate informationon agricultural research. They also decidedthat there needed to be a policy on agricul-tureresearch.”Thus,theorganizationformed.Ninety-sixyearslater,underadifferentname,theAICisstillherewiththesamefocus.

TheAICmandateisveryclear:•Toadvocateonbehalfofagricultural

research.•Todisseminateinformationrelatedto

agriculturalresearch.

•Tofacilitatenetworkingofresearchers,practitionersandstakeholders.

•Toencouragepeopletogetinvolvedinagriculturalresearch.

•Tocreateinternationallinkagesforagricul-turalresearch.

In 2015, the AIC hosted a conferencefocused on establishing a national policy onagriculturalresearch.Theresultsofthiswerepublished last September. This is a livingdocumentandopentochangeasneeded.Theintention is toensure that there isa sustain-able capacity of agricultural research goingforward,withabalancebetweenappliedandpureresearch.

The AIC and Farming Smarter are wellawarethatintimesofbudgetaryconstraintsit

Agricultural research takes specialized equipment and training. Here a summer student combines plots at Farming Smarter’s research plots. PHOTO: FARmING SmARTER

Canadian Research For Canadian Agricultureby Kristi Cox

can be difficult to secure the needed funding for research. They are also aware that it takes time to see results from agricultural research and delaying studies can be detrimental.

Serge Buy explains, “It takes time for research to actually come to fruition and it takes time for research to be implemented by our stakeholders on the farm and by agrolo-gists. We want to make sure that there is a capacity for that and that we don’t forget that there is a need for agriculture research and that the dollars keep coming.”

The September 2015 national research policy addresses five key areas:• Setting research priority areas.• Promoting interdisciplinary and cross-

sectoral research.• Bringing greater balance to research

funding.• Supporting innovation and the adoption of

new technologies.• Building strong networks for research

dissemination.This publication received a fair bit of media

coverage and got the attention of the 2015 federal election candidates. “I’m sure we’re

not the only impetus behind this, but all the major political parties talked about agricultural research either in their platform or in a specific announcement they made about agricultural research,” Buy said. Agricultural research hadn’t received any attention in the previous four fed-eral elections.

“In 2015, we suddenly had political parties talking about agriculture research promising hundreds of millions of dollars and moving ahead,” Buy explained. He wasn’t concerned so much with the details of who was promis-ing what, but that it was part of the campaign. “What was very relevant for us is that we were being mentioned and I think that was an achievement.”

Building on this process, the AIC 2016 conference will focus on the dissemina-tion of agricultural research. The hope is to develop a framework for universities and research facilities to use. “It’s nice to have scientists working on various research objec-tives, but then when they’ve done this, how does it get out? How does it get out to the field; how does it get out to the practitio-ners?” Buy explained. “Who are the best communicators; what are the pitfalls; what are the concerns about the communication of agricultural research?”

While Farming Smarter is a non-profit organization and accustomed to seeking funding for its programs, Ken Coles, Man-ager of Farming Smarter felt that the AIC work is important enough for him to spon-sor the upcoming conference and take out a membership. “I’ve always been desperately looking for help, support and ways to col-laborate with people on advocacy. It’s a big part of my job. Trying to advocate not only for agriculture, but for our organization, so that we can survive and do the good work that we’re hoping to do,” Coles said. h

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Pulse growers get 2016 to bask in the limelight and promote pulses to international consumers. The wait is

finally over, Pulse Feast, Canada’s kick off to the International Year of Pulses (IYP) took place in Toronto January 6.

Hosted by Canadian IYP Ambassa-dor Chef Michael Smith, the event drew over 180 Canadian journalists, bloggers, dietitians and food industry to downtown Toronto to connect with Canadian farmers and pulse industry members. It was one of over 140 similar events held in 36 countries around the world on January 6.

At the Toronto event, Allison Ammeter spoke about the importance of addressing global health, nutrition and environmental challenges — and the role that consumer choices play in food production. Ammeter is a pulse farmer in Alberta, and is also the chair of the planning IYP Canada Commit-tee.

Echoing her enthusiasm, Chef Michael Smith added that pulses are an affordable, sustainable and versatile source of protein, fiber and many other nutrients for billions of people around the world.

Attendees were able to see the versatil-ity of pulses for themselves, tasting hors d’oeuvres and dishing up at bean, pea, len-til and chickpea food stations. Guests were also encouraged to take the Pulse Pledge, a 10-week commitment to eat a half cup of pulses per week. By the end of the day on January 6, more than 3,400 people had taken the Pledge. One week later the num-ber had more than doubled to 7,000. By the beginning of February, 10,000 people had taken the Pulse Pledge. You can take it too by visiting http://pulsepledge.com.

Throughout the event, social media buzzed about pulses, with #LovePulses ranking fourth on Twitter’s trending top-ics in Toronto and eighth in Canada. Pulse Feast also received national media atten-tion from outlets such as CBC and the Globe and Mail, as well as coverage in local publications such as in various Sun Media publications. Prior to the event, Chef Michael Smith also appeared on Breakfast Television Toronto and did interviews with several local CBC Radio shows.

Making its debut at Pulse Feast was Pulses: The Ideal Partner, an interactive

exhibit developed by the Canada Agri-culture and Food Museum that will travel around the country during 2016 teaching Canadians why pulses are the ideal partner for our health, environment and economy.

Also launched on January 6 was an edu-cational program developed by Agriculture in the Classroom Canada that aims to teach Canadian elementary, middle and high school students about pulses. On top of this program’s inclusion in various subjects’ lesson plans, pulses will also be highlighted in schools across the country during Cana-dian Ag Literacy Week in March.

Following a successful start to 2016, Pulse Canada’s goal is to sustain this momentum throughout 2016 as events and activities unfold. This will include develop-ing programs on pulses for Canadian food banks and community kitchens, a two-part workshop on pulse ingredient processing, a food product development competition for post-secondary students and a series of sessions on pulse health and nutrition for Canadian health care professionals. To learn more about these activities, visit www.iypcanada.ca. h

International Year of Pulses

Kicks Off at Toronto Gala

By Pulse Canada Chef Michael smith (second from left) took photos with every attendee at Pulse Feast that kicked off Canada’s IyP celebration in Toronto. PhoTo: Pulse Canada

Global Initiative

GRoWInG neW Ideas / GRoWInG KnoWledGe / GRoWInG sTeWaRdshIP30 Farming Smarter / SPring 2016

PhoTo: FaRMInG sMaRTeR


Alberta is Leading on Climate Change and Creating Jobs With Solar Power

A new solar program for agricultural pro-ducers — On-Farm Solar Management — will provide $500,000 in provincial

and federal funding towards solar energy systems on Alberta farms. The program will help produc-ers generate electricity and reduce carbon emis-sions. The On-Farm Solar Management program application window opens February 8.

As part of its Climate Leadership Plan, the Alberta government is investing more than $5 million to help farmers and municipalities har-ness the power of the sun and support good local jobs.

This investment will help build Alberta’s green energy sector, including creating jobs in the project design and construction sectors, while supporting jobs and growth in the renewable energy supply chain.

Five million dollars is earmarked for the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre for a solar energy incentive program — the Alberta Municipal Solar Program. This program will provide rebates of up to $0.75 per watt, to a maxi-mum of $300,000 per project, to municipalities for installing solar on municipal buildings, such as offices, fire halls, community centres and more. The Alberta Municipal Solar Program opens for applications on March 1.

“Agricultural producers embrace innovation

and are good stewards of the land. The solar installation program will help increase farming efficiencies, reduce power bills and greenhouse gas emissions and add to Alberta’s power grid.”

— Oneil Carlier, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry

“Since 2010, our farm has been produc-ing electricity as well as food. We installed 24

solar panels on our barn roof. Both we and our installer were pleasantly surprised at how hassle-free it was to get our regular meter replaced with a two-way meter so that we get credit when we produce more power than we are using. Solar energy mitigates climate change and diversifies Alberta’s economy.” — John Bocock, Sturgeon County dairy farmer. h

PHOTO: ISTOcK

Stewardship

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Review by C. Lacombe

The human mind is the quickest instru-ment at our disposal and in those moments when mind and body react

instantly to something, it is often the per-fectly right thing to do.

You know what I’m talking about if you’re over about three-years-old, probably. You can think of a time when you did exactly the right thing without conscious thought. We marvel at ourselves when this happens and everyone agrees it was a synchronous moment.

But wait, what if you Blink? Malcolm Gladwell named this book well as it explores those moments when our mind gets ahead of us and we often don’t know what just hap-pened or why we think what we’re thinking.

It turns out that if you know a subject deeply you can trust your gut feelings almost completely. If you find yourself with a feeling that your crop just doesn’t look right, you’re probably correct that it’s showing early signs of something BEFORE it’s obviously showing something. Gladwell says the label for this is Adaptive Unconscious and it is a highly reliable and finely tuned instrument. But that doesn’t mean that your snap judge-ment about something else is correct. It only works on things you know with every fibre of your being.

Because, if you just had a long conversa-tion with someone about crop risks, insects or disease creeping into your region, then your mind may be primed to look for prob-lems that aren’t there and you’re gut feeling will be wrong. The same can happen if you visited a friend this morning and saw a huge infestation of aphids. You may find yourself spraying your crop convinced you have the same infestation even though it’s not there. Your eyes will actually see aphids where they are not.

Another challenge with trusting your adaptive unconscious is that it contains biases that even we don’t know are in there. What if you believe the crop you’re looking

at is bullet proof ? It’s one of those crops that everyone grows and everyone knows that it just doesn’t have pests in this region. The cli-mate is not right or the crop is too new to the area for pests to have caught up to it yet. So you look at the crop, feel a little weird about it, but dismiss it because it must be fine, there can be no problem, maybe give it a shot of water if you have that option. Then it turns out that your region is the first to welcome that crop’s biggest pest threat. Dang!

This is almost the same as the other chal-lenge we have with making decisions — TMI. Too much information can cloud our judge-ment as surely as walking into a dark room or a bank of fog. The opening story in Blink is about experts reacting to a ridiculously expensive statue that turned out to be fake. All the experts saw it except the ones study-ing it. They were so focused on the single details that they didn’t see the whole picture. Gladwell also gives an example of a well-worn, battle commander smacking down a technology-heavy and process entrenched enemy in war games because he made quick decisions and acted fast.

But sometimes we need to digest things before we understand what we have in front of us. Gladwell reiterates the challenges with taste tests and market research that provide too small a slice of something to be effective. Sometimes, we need context and home turf to really understand what we like. This chap-ter of the book reminds us to keep an open mind when we meet new things. Sometimes we will convince ourselves that we like or dis-like something based on bias and initial per-ceptions that do not reflect the reality of what we have in our hands… or mouth… or eyes.

The benefit I think Blink offers readers is both the assurance that you know what you’re talking about and the tools to under-stand why you’re wrong about stuff. If that sounds confusing it’s probably because we’re talking about the human mind and there is little on this planet more confusing than people’s minds. h

BLINK — The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by MalcolM Gladwell, Published by little, brown & coMPany

Book Review

GrowinG new ideas / GrowinG KnowledGe / GrowinG stewardshiP32 Farming Smarter / SPring 2016

It turns out that if you know a subject deeply you can trust your gut feelings almost completely. If you find yourself with a feeling that your crop just doesn’t look right, you’re probably correct.

Opinion


T he changing media environment exposes everyone to the risk of information distortion. For many people, who to trust has become one huge question mark.

We used to trust media that presented facts objectively and without emo-tion. Often, reporters conveyed facts from experts deeply involved in the subject they were talking about. We may have been better off back then when trusted journalists served as a filter for us. At least you could get to know a particular journalist’s bias and understand that their reporting contained a certain perspective. You could also check in with other journalists to see a different perspective. Anyone that wanted an opinion read the editorial.

Today, media conglomerates have one jour-nalist producing a story for its entire empire on all platforms — TV, radio, print, web and social media. We are not dumb! We can see we are only getting one perspective.

So, we turn to the internet to find the truth - we hope. What we find is a cacophony of ideas, facts, fallacies, emotions, outright lies and sales pitches with no intelligent filter. It’s tedious and frustrating.

I think that the internet is as disruptive a tech-nology as the printing press was in its time and in a similar way. Both require a new literacy to assimilate the information they make available. Back in 1452 when Gutenberg invented the printing press, many people couldn’t read. Today, many people seek information on the inter-net without understanding how to filter it. They find themselves vulnerable to that cacophony.

And so we look for trusted experts well versed in their field of knowledge and honest when conveying information that might be important and relevant

to the general population. The challenge in this is finding a source we can trust. Experts have become suspect.

We don’t believe people just because they have facts that science can prove. Somehow, we have arrived at a place where we believe a nobody before a relevant source. There are people out there becoming famous talking about areas where they have no actual expertise. But because they

know how to strike the right cord, they become acknowledged fonts of wisdom. The cord they seem to like to strike most is fear. People seem more willing to be afraid than reassured.

We all have our own bias too. We hold beliefs that cause us to dig in when presented with facts that contradict our belief. (Google Brendan Nyhan at Dartmouth University — he’s an expert. He has a PhD!) This means that if I believe that GMO plants are FrankenFoods, you cannot change my belief with facts. I don’t care about your facts. I care about my beliefs.

We need to spend time periodically examin-ing our beliefs, where we got them and if they still serve us well. Our beliefs predetermine our reactions and blind us to what could be impor-tant information. We make ourselves vulnerable

to manipulation and can unwittingly become part of something we didn’t sign up to support.

My best advice is to make sure you know your own bias and beliefs that form your filter and try to keep an open mind so that when new informa-tion comes into your life, you will at least hear it, explore it and allow it to land where it belongs. Which could be the manure pile or the fertilizer pile (as in Growing Knowledge). h

Examine Your Filters Regularly by C. LACOmbE

“What we can or cannot do, what we consider possible or impossible, is rarely a function of our true capability. It is more likely a function of our beliefs about who we are.”

— Tony Robbins

Internet stuff to keep In mIndThe internet filters informa-tion based on your prior searches and delivers you similar results. It’s not quite thinking for you, but it’s trying very hard to do that and get-ting better at it all the time.Regularly clean your internet history, especially cookies. before you believe informa-tion from an internet source, check who created the site, who sits on the board of directors and what informa-tion is on the About Us page. beware of celebrity; it fogs the conversation.


Agronomy Advice

Stickwiththebasicsistheleadingadvicefor farmers looking to optimize canolayields,saysaCanolaCouncilofCanada

(CCA)agronomist.Researchandexperienceshowsoptimizing

yields includes a sufficient plant count in thefield, supplying proper fertility and then pro-tectingitthroughtoharvest,saysDanOrchard,CCAagronomyspecialistbasedinWetaskiwin,Alta.

“Therearenoshortcutsifyou’relookingtooptimizeyieldsandprotectyourinvestmentincropinputs,”saysOrchards.“Itallcomesbacktolookingafterthebasicsandhopethatnatureco-operates.”

HereareOrchards’fivekeypointstoensur-ing a canola crop that delivers the maximumyieldtothebin:

1.Make sure there are enough plants in theground.Ideallyseedintoafirm,moistseedbed. Keep your field travel speed down toshallow seed the crop at between 1/2- to3/4-inch seed depth. And aim for a plantstand of between seven to 10 plants persquare foot (in very general terms that’sbetween five to eight pounds of seed peracre).Orchardadvisesfarmerstodeterminethe proper seeding rate for each batch ofseedbasedona1,000seedweight(TSW)formula.(Calculatorsareavailableon-line.)Whileseedbatcheswillvary,planaseedingratebasedon50to60percentseedsurvival.Orchardsaysfarmerscantargetlowerplantstandsandhopethecropcompensates forfewerplants,butthereisalwaystheriskofan early frost, disease or insects reducingplantnumbersfurther.

2.Apply proper fertility. Orchards says farmersshould target a canola yield and apply suffi-cientfertilitytomeetthatyield,basedonasoiltestrecommendation.Buthealsourgesfarm-ers to give thought to a realistic target yield.“Lookatyoursoilandmanagementpotential,”says Orchard. “You may target a 40-bushelyield, when more realistically you could beproducing a 60 bushel crop. You don’t wantto be leaving a 20-bushel yield potential onthetable.”Whilethecroprequiresacompletenutrientpackage,thekeyrequirementisnitro-gen.Canolarequires2-1/2poundsofnitrogenfor each bushel of targeted yield. About 20

poundsofphosphatecanbeplacedwiththeseed,whiletherestofthenutrientpackagecanbesidebanded.

3.Be vigilant about disease prevention andcontrol. Orchard urges farmers to be dili-gent about scouting canola fields for signsofdisease.Payattentiontocropandweatherconditions, which may be conducive fordiseases such as sclerotina, and treat if theriskishigh.Hehasaparticularmessageforfarmers to be on guard for a relatively newdisease, clubroot, which appeared in manycentral Alberta canola fields over the past10years.Asoil-bornedisease, it isnotonlydevastating to the current crop, but onceestablishedcanpersistinthesoilforaslongas20years.Iffarminginanareawhereclub-rootisprevalent,herecommendsproducersgrow clubroot resistant canola varieties,limit commercial vehicle access to farmfieldssincetrucksandequipmentcancarrythe contaminated soil to your farm, and bewatching for any signs of the disease. Moredetails on clubroot prevention and controlcanbefoundonawebsiteatclubroot.ca

4.Early weed control. Canola yield is opti-mizedwhenweedsarecontrolledearly,saysOrchard. While many producers follow

a long-standing practice to wait until thethree- to four-leaf crop stage to apply her-bicide, Orchard says research shows yieldsincrease with weed control measures at thetwo-tothree-leafcropstage.“Applycontrolas early as the herbicide label will allow,”saysOrchard.“Butideallytargetthetwo-tothree-leafstage.”Whileitislikelymoreweedswillgerminatelater,themorevigorouscropwillbeabletooutcompeteweeds.”Bytreat-ingearlyasecondherbicideapplicationmaynotbeneeded,unlessitisintendedforsomepre-harvestweedcontrolmeasure.

5.Time of swathing. Ideally aim to swath thecrop at 60 per cent rather than 30 per centseed colour change, says Orchard. Wait-ing for this latermaturity for swathing,willreduce the level of green-seed count. Hepoints out that newer canola varieties haveimprovedpodshatterresistance,whichhelpsreducelosseswhenthecropiscombined.“Ifyou’re farming a large number of acres it isimpossible to swath everything at the idealstage,” says Orchard. “Swathing a bit earliermaybenecessarybutideallyaimforthe60percentseedcolourchange.”h

Lee Hart is a long time agricultural writer based in Calgary, Alta.

Five Key Points to Optimize Canola Yieldby LEE HART

PHOTOS: FARmING SmARTER

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Chairman Craig Walsh at VW Factory

Wolfburg training to drive the autobaun

Our walking tour stopped at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. The concrete bricks resemble gravestones. They start out at ground level around the outside but get taller until they tower over you giving you a sense of uneasiness about the atrocities committed.

A slightly sluggish Farming Smarter crew after over 30 hours of travelling arrives at Agritechnica to find a glass tractor is a common tool of exhibitors to display the parts they manufacture.

“These bears were everywhere in Berlin. Some were different colours and they were in different poses. I don’t know exactly what they were about.”

— Jamie Puchinger

“Jamie doing her best Gummybear impersonation.”

— Mike Gretzinger

Agritechnica 2015Farming Smarter

The Audostadt in Wolfsburg is the epitome of German automotive manufacturing. It employs over half the city. It showcased Volkswagen history in a massive building made of stainless steel where our delegatges enjoyed a Willy Wonky style tour of an astounding two km long VW assembly line.

A few of the 28 pavilions used for Agritechnica had very interesting architecture, and all of them were full of exhibitors and participants!


This automated soil sampler was mounted on the back of a jeep, which caught Mike’s eye, could be programmed to take up to three sample depths per core.

Its hard to tell where the artistic statues end and George Lubberts begins as we stroll the streets of Braunschweig on a beautiful autumn afternoon.

“I’m way more excited about robotics in agriculture than I am in precision technology.”

— Ken Coles

If you look closely you will find Ken, Mike and Jamie in the massive crowd already started at 10 a.m. of Day 1… no way you would have seen us after lunch!


Agritechnica 2015Farming Smarter

“Beer! As someone who doesn’t typically LOVE beer, I can attest German beer is nothing like what we have available in Canada.”

— Jamie Puchinger

285 Service Road Vulcan, AB403.485.1998 / 1.888.972.9378

[email protected]

KEITH ANDERSONSOUTHERN ALBERTA DSM

403.399.8099www.alpinepfl .com

©2015. NACHURS ALPINE SOLUTIONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALPINE and ALPINE G22 are registered trademarks of NACHURS ALPINE SOLUTIONS.

ALPINE Application InnovationEasiest pulse crop inoculation system

Inoculating pulse crops is a very important step in achieving optimum yields associated with the nitrogen fi xation the bacterium provides to the plants and the subsequent soil enrichment for the preceding crop. Many ALPINE customers were wanting to take full advantage of their ALPINE application kit by using it to also deliver the bacterium inoculant to their pulse crops. Unfortunately the early strains of inoculants were not compatible with ALPINE G22. Continued product development e orts by ALPINE has confi rmed two inoculants that can now be tank mixed with ALPINE G22.

Yield increases by 2.3 bus

Test results from the past three years have shown an average yield increase of 2.3 bushels per acre when ALPINE G22 was tank mixed with a liquid inoculant compared to a granular inoculant alone. Use of ALPINE G22 alone in addition to a granular inoculant also resulted in a yield increase. Blake Weatherhald, ALPINE DSM, notes that growers should always use a granular inoculant in virgin pulse ground to ensure maximum root inoculation. These yield increases are consistent with the benefi ts we see when using ALPINE G22 on any crop as the source for starter phosphate.

While the plots showed that the starter nutrition found in ALPINE G22 was compatible with some liquid inoculants, there was still a problem with viability of the inoculant when tank mixed for more than four hours. This meant adding more bladders of the inoculant to the ALPINE at regular intervals to ensure enough viable bacteria was being added in the seed furrow.

Equipment innovation

The product development team tested a solution to make the process even easier for the farmer to get proper inoculation while using the ALPINE tank mixed with liquid inoculants. Geo Legge was one of the growers that tested the new injection system for liquid inoculants on his ALPINE application kit. By injecting the liquid inoculant into the ALPINE manifold and not tank mixing with the ALPINE starter product he was able to treat his seed with very little e ort and no wasted inoculant or time. Geo says, “It was a very convenient way to inoculate and much simpler than treating seed.” Inoculating his pulse crops is now as simple as adding a bladder of inoculant to a tank. No more treating seed, retreating seed, or messing with seed stickers.

Limited supply

Blake Weatherald says that the new ALPINE Injection Kit for Inoculants will be available in limited numbers for the 2016 growing season. Growers should contact their ALPINE DSM or ALPINE retailer early to get their

The new ALPINE Injections Kit for Inoculants

equipment set up for ALPINE G22 use and the new injector kit for inoculants. Growers like Geo Legge have proven the performance of ALPINE G22 as their source for phosphate for pulse crops and now have an easy and convenient way to inoculate their pulse crops. Considering it is cheaper and easier to use than granular on repeat pulse ground the Alpine G22 and liquid inoculate combination looks like a winner!!

international year of - agcanada...4 farming smarter / spring 2016 growing new ideas / growing...

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