That’s according to members of the aquaculture sector during the Food Leadership Summit in Calgary earlier this fall.

WHY IT MATTERS: Aquaculture isn’t just for Canada’s coast lines. Fish farming is digging roots on the Prairies, while the sector is being eyed as a potential feed market for canola meal.

Tim Kennedy president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA) says efforts are underway to have aquaculture defined as a bona fide farming enterprise and brought under the umbrella of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC).

As well as better promotion, the sector notes that coming under AAFC would open the doors for better stability though business risk management and support programs.

Currently aquaculture falls under the purview of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, which is a largely a regulatory body.

“What aquaculture needs is a department to champion and promote its cause as a viable agricultural enterprise,” said Kennedy.

“We need to be recognized as farmers, just like crop and livestock producers, and the potential and growth of the sector needs to be promoted, which is an important roll AAFC can play.”

Industry promise, government hurdles

Members of the aquaculture sector are optimistic about the potential of their industry, but argue that Ottawa’s current tone towards aquaculture risks holding it back.

Canada has a natural aquaculture advantage, attendees of the Calgary event heard, and could position itself as a world leader in farmed fish and seafood production.

At least one company has been trying to make its mark in that regard in Manitoba. Although right in the centre of the country, aquaculture company Sapphire Springs Inc. announced plans last year for a major Arctic char fish farming facility just outside of Winnipeg.

That fish farm site, chosen for its proximity to transportation infrastructure, cheap energy and sitting on an cold aquifer suitable for the fish species, promises to increase global Arctic char supply by 50 per cent.

Elsewhere though, particularly with B.C.’s penned salmon sectors, troubles are brewing.

The industry has taken heat from conservationists, who argue that the intense production in an open ocean environment encourages the spread of pathogens and parasites into surrounding wild waters.

In June 2024, the federal government announced a move away from open-net production. Salmon aquaculture operations have until June 30, 2029, to move to more contained forms of fish farming.

Kennedy, though, said that “If the plan for an announced ban on open-net pen salmon production on British Columbia’s coast by 2029 isn’t changed, it essentially means the end of farmed salmon production in Canada.”

He pointed to recent closures of two of major farmed salmon operations off B.C.’s coast. He described that as a major blow to the aquaculture industry.

“Those closures really curtailed fish production, so an outright ban on open-net pen salmon production will kill fish farming in Canada,” he said.

“There have been numerous studies over the years that show penned salmon production has ‘no more than minimal risk’ to the wild salmon fishery and the environment. This message needs to be delivered clearly to the federal government and the public in general.”

Wide breadth of aquaculture

Aquaculture as also more than just the stereotypical fish farm, attendees heard. The term actually refers to broad range of products that includes proteins and oils derived from seaweed, algae and other aquatic plants.

Among seafood products, Kennedy argues that farmed salmon is a relatively new enterprise, introduced over the past 45 years.

Harvesting shellfish, meanwhile, has been an industry for hundreds of years.

He also noted the start up of inland production, based in tanks and ponds.

Recent fish farming announcements in Manitoba would fall under that purview.

Canadian production ‘going backwards’

Canada’s aquaculture industry hit its peak production in 2018 with the harvest of about 200,000 tonnes of fish and seafood products. However, with the two salmon farming operations closures in B.C. — located in the Broughton Archipelago and Discovery Island — production was cut by about 40 per cent.

In 2023, total aquaculture production dropped to 145,000 tonnes (including farmed fish and shellfish). Of that total, about 80,000 tonnes was farmed salmon.

Kennedy expects the 2024 production numbers to further drop to about 130,000 tonnes.

“We have three times the capacity, yet Norway produces 20 times more farmed fish than we do.”

Tim Kennedy

Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance

By comparison, Norway, which pioneered penned salmon production and technology following the Second World War, produces about 1.7 million tonnes of farmed salmon and other fish annually. That’s on top of a strong wild salmon fishery.

“Norway has about one-third of coastline and ocean potential to produce farmed salmon than what Canada has,” said Kennedy. “We have three times the capacity, yet Norway produces 20 times more farmed fish than we do.”

In another example, he points to the Faroe Islands, lying halfway between the mainland of Denmark and Iceland.

“The Faroe Islands have about 1,200 kilometres of coastline and produce about 80,000 tonnes of farmed salmon, which is just about the same as what Canada produces, yet Canada has 79,000 kilometres of coastline,” said Kennedy. “We have significant potential to increase aquaculture production, yet in actual fact we are going backwards.”

Social impacts of fish farming

Kennedy argues that the farmed salmon industry provides important economic and social benefits to many small and remote coastal communities.

“Many of these remote communities are home to First Nations people and, because they are remote it can be difficult and expensive to deliver food and other supplies,” he said. “When farmed salmon production was at its peak, trucks were needed to haul the harvested salmon out, but those trucks were also used to haul in food and other goods which benefited the communities.

“As the industry has been forced to downsize, that has also affected deliveries to these remote areas. It has gone from an industry employing 7,000 people down to about 4,500 people. “

Kallie Wood, president and chief executive officer of the National Circle for Indigenous Agriculture and Food (NCIAF) said aquaculture’s story in Canada can’t be told without Indigenous people. “Aquaculture and fish farming relies on Indigenous people on all three coastlines” she said.

“There are a lot of people out there who don’t know what they are talking about.”

Kallie Wood

National Circle for Indigenous Agriculture and Food

“And when you have a close look at these operations you see that they are well run with minimal impact on the environment. There are a lot of people out there who don’t know what they are talking about. So we need to do a better job of telling our story, and make greater use of the knowledge of Indigenous people. We need to have more Indigenous voices at the table being part of the discussion.”

A report by Kenneth Green, senior fellow with the Fraser Institute, points to a study by consulting firm RIAS Inc. on behalf of the BC Salmon Farmers.

That report found that the proposed open-net ban “would result in a loss of $1.17 billion in annual economic activity; $435 million in Canada’s economic output (GDP); and 4,560 fewer full-time jobs with a combined annual payroll of approximately $259 million,” Green wrote.

“Further, RIAS found, the ban would cause losses of $437 million in spending with more than 1,400 vendors across B.C. and the elimination of a further 50,000 tonnes of farmed salmon production.”

That, in turn would be a hit to Canadian agri-food production equivalent to about 400 million meals, as well as eliminating B.C.’s top agri-food export, RIAS reported.

Fish farming, emphasis on ‘farming’

Kennedy said both the science and the economics support the value of aquaculture as part of agriculture.

“Right now we are using about one per cent of the viable aquaculture area along Canada’s coastline to produce seafood,” he said. “We could double production and, for the most part, still stay within that one per cent footprint.”

He notes that the Norwegian government has set a goal to increase its farmed salmon production by 500 per cent by 2050. He thinks Canadian industry just needs the proper support and encouragement to also grow the sector here.

“We could set a goal to increase production to 500,000 tonnes by 2050 for example,” said Kennedy. “The potential and capacity are there. It would have tremendous value in food production, create more jobs and benefit the economy and communities.”

The post Canadian aquaculture wants farming treatment appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

OK, I really don’t know if I am any smarter than before this event. This conference brought together about 400 ag industry players ranging from primary producers to processors to educators, agricultural and environmental organizations and major food retailers. It was a very broad and interesting cross section of people and organizations involved in some aspect of the agriculture industry.

There were a few grain farmers and beef producers in the crowd while elsewhere in the main conference room were prominent food industry executives such as Galen Weston, chair of Loblaws, and Michael McCain, chair of Maple Leaf Foods.

Nutrien and Calgary Stampede were a couple of the main sponsors and partners of the food summit, along with some other familiar organizations and companies such as Alberta Grains, Pulse Canada, Farmers for Climate Solutions, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, BASF, FCC and Olds College to name a few.

So what were they all gathered for? I’m not really sure. It was the first of what is expected to become an annual conference. GLOBE, which is a well-established event planner that organized the conference, said “by connecting farmers, innovators, retailers, policymakers and investors in one space, we hoped to align on shared priorities and elevate the collective voice of Canada’s agriculture and food sector.”

READ MORE: Leading with transparency in a risky world

I might not have described it in those terms, but again, I was only there for part of a day. It certainly was an event that brought together a cross-section of the agriculture industry. Along with keynote speakers, there were plenty of breakout sessions and roundtable discussions intended to provide people with ideas or inspiration to take home and change their lives or at least do things differently.

One farmer I spoke with after the conference described it as two days of a lot of buzzwords, and a chance for companies to track down programs, services and practices they could align with to make themselves look more “green.” He might have been a tad cynical, but not totally wrong.

The summit was certainly an opportunity for the various sectors of the agriculture industry to connect with one another. Who knows where that networking might lead to in terms or partnerships and alliances down the road.

Quebec meat processor

One unexpected encounter for me involved meeting with Indira Moudi, president and CEO of a small federally-inspected meat packing plant in southern Quebec. Moudi and business partner Guillaume Pham are both engineers by training with no direct experience in the meat packing business.

A few years ago they bought a third-generation meat processing facility — Viandes Lafrance — at Shawinigan. That’s a Quebec community on the north side of the St. Lawrence River about halfway between Montreal and Quebec City.

The founder of the business, Louis Lafrance, started out in 1929, providing butchering and meat cutting services for farmers on their farms. He eventually opened an abattoir that expanded services and remained family owned for many years. In 2008, the business relocated to Shawinigan. However, with no option for family succession, the owners eventually sold the business to Moudi and Pham.

The federally-inspected slaughterhouse is the first facility to obtain multi-species accreditation from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The company is also HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point)- and halal-certified. The HACCP certification means they have a food safety management system in place for identifying, controlling, and preventing food hazards.

READ MORE: ‘Sustainable’ beef pilot a success, but the job isn’t done yet

They slaughter, process and sell wholesale sheep, cattle, veal, lamb, goat, bison, llama and other specialty livestock. Moudi said their business focus is on producing “responsible meat products.” They work with local Quebec producers who follow sound environmental practices and raise their livestock under humane production practices. Eventually they plan to sell branded meat products.

I thought it was an interesting story for a couple reasons. First, Moudi and Pham are a couple engineers who got out of their comfort zone and put their energy into learning to operate a well-established family business, with a commitment to carry on values of supporting local producers, providing good service and quality products.

And perhaps it’s a model for meat processing that could work in other parts of the country. Many times over the years I’ve talked to livestock producers who often cite business limitations include finding a qualified butcher or accessible abattoir, and/or not having access to a federally-inspected facility, which makes it possible to sell products outside their province.

What else did I learn on this memorable day? I had never been to the newly renovated and expanded BMO Centre at Stampede Park. Parking was good for a start. What a beautiful big building. If you want to get in your 10,000 steps a day indoors, it is a great place for that. Everything about the building following the half billion-dollar expansion is big. A 50,000-square foot ballroom, and at 70 feet tall, the world’s largest fireplace. And getting to this conference that was on an upper level involved a ride on what is described as the longest free-standing escalator in Canada at 110 feet. I was just extremely grateful it was an escalator and not stairs.

The post The great food summit adventure appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

WHY IT MATTERS: Canada has been in a push-and-pull trade dilemma with both the United States and China for months, with the latest blow being struck against Canadian canola seed after China introduced a 75.8 per cent tariff on that product.

Ted Bilyea, former executive vice-president at Maple Leaf Foods and now a consultant with the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute and elsewhere, turned to history to back his argument. There are examples of pioneers in the Canadian food industry who turned tariffs imposed by the governments of the 1800s and 1900s into an opportunity for quality Canadian products, he noted.

“I don’t think we can compete with commodity products,” said Bilyea. “But if we can search out or develop products that differentiate themselves in the marketplace — develop a product that is different, that the consumer sees as better, perhaps better quality or healthier, for example — that’s what we need to target.

“It may sound like supplying a niche market, but be prepared,” he added. “What might seem like a niche market in Canada can become a massive market on the global front. The idea is to start out supplying a niche market in Canada, but then the manufacturer or supplier needs to have the resources and ability to scale up production to supply a global market.”

Consumers are willing to pay for a “better” or higher quality product, regardless of tariffs, he also said.

The pork example

One such historical example has helped shape part of the Canadian pork business. In the late 1850s, U.K. businessman William Davies arrived in Toronto with a plan to market dressed pork to Toronto and Montreal, as well as export meat back to England.

It was a tariff-free environment between Canada and the U.S. and many Canadian farmers were busy selling wheat, oats and barley to the Americans. Canadian pork producers in those days focused mainly on producing a boxy-shaped hog breed well suited for a lard market.

Davies began introducing British hog breeds, Tamworth and Yorkshire, which were genetically suited to be processed into pork and specifically well suited for bacon — in high demand in the U.K.

Davies was among those building processing plants that, by the late 1890s, led to Toronto being known as “Hog Town.”

In the years following the end of the U.S. Civil War in the late 1860s, the U.S. economy had less need for Canadian imports and began imposing tariffs on Canadian products, including barley. That levy started out at 25 cents per bushel, but increased to 48.4 per cent by 1890.

Canada’s response, in part, included a real push to open Western Canada to more agricultural production.

Davies, who by that time had built a successful hog processing business in Toronto, realized that as the door to the U.S. barley market closed, it created a surplus of cheap barley in Eastern Canada. At the same time, the U.K. was dealing with animal disease issues and there were crop failures in Germany. This meant that the U.K. and Europe in general were short of meat.

Davies ramped up production of high-quality Canadian pork, fed on Canadian-grown barley, to help fill that pork gap in the U.K. Even though Canadian pork cost more compared to U.S. pork, it was in greater demand. Coming from British hog breeds, it had the quality U.K. consumers wanted.

Export of consumer food products

Bilyea says Canadian manufacturers have capitalized on several market opportunities, particularly for processed foods.

“Going back to 2012 it was a common perception that Canada was only a supplier of raw materials,” says Bilyea. “The example often cited was that we exported oats and imported Cheerios. But by 2015 things had changed. Canada now has an export surplus particularly in several areas of consumer food products.”

For example, Canada has a “few billion dollars surplus” in baked goods to the U.S. Dare Foods has manufacturing plants on both sides of the border and, after Grupo Bimbo of Mexico (the largest bakery in the world) acquired Canada Bread from Maple Leaf Foods, Bimbo now exports a wide range of bakery products from Canada to the U.S. and many other countries.

Canada is also a major exporter of chocolate products, thanks in part to multinational Ferrero Rocher, which has one of its largest plants in Brantford, Ont. Canada is also a major exporter of certain types of vegetables such as frozen French fries. And Canada remains a major exporter of pork products.

“There are essentially two types of pork in demand,” said Bilyea. “The European market is mostly interested in hog genetics that produce hams for processing. Whereas in the North American market, there is a large demand for table meat, which means producing breeds of hogs that produce more marbling, which therefore has more flavour. U.S. processors and producers have been somewhat ambivalent about supplying this market, so that’s where Canada comes in with quality pork well suited for the table meat market. We have a well established reputation for producing the best table meat.

“So there are several areas among the consumer food products where Canada is supplying what, in some respects, is a niche market, but on a global scale it becomes a massive market,” says Bilyea.

When it comes to the beef market, Bilyea isn’t sure how the U.S. will function if it imposes tariffs on beef from its major supplying trade partners. “The U.S. cannot produce enough beef to supply its own needs,” he said. “The country is net importer of beef products. Brazil, Australia, Canada and Mexico all export beef to the U.S. The U.S. can talk about tariffs, but the fact is that the American people want their hamburgers.”

Bilyea says tariffs will no doubt create some short-term economic hardships for affected sectors, but there will also be opportunity for producers, processors and manufacturers to look for other markets and supply “a different or better product” for those niche opportunities.

The post Trade war may create Canadian economic opportunities appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

To ease your mind, this column has nothing to do with cardiovascular health (or lack thereof). It is just the ramblings of an old farm boy and a long time, somewhat, most-days retired agricultural writer who apparently thinks he should ride this computer keyboard into the sunset.

Hart Attacks and my name might be new to some of you while others are saying “oh, that guy again.” The fact is, I have been writing a Hart Attacks column for most of the past 50 years. And if over the past three decades you flipped through Country Guide or Grainews, you might have seen my name and this column heading on those hallowed pages.

Yes my retirement from Grainews in 2022 was widely noted. But you know that feeling you get deep in your gut that says you still have something important to contribute to life? Well, me neither. But when Glacier FarmMedia said they’d pay me a few bucks for a column, I was all over that idea. So here we go.

I’m not sure what this Hart Attacks column will be about. I thought I might focus on politics and religion — Danielle and company, Carney and company, Trump and stupid move of the day — but I figured there’s a high probability of running out of material. Are they doing anything worth talking about?

I was born and raised on a dairy farm in eastern Ontario back in the day when a 25 head milking herd was a pretty typical sized dairy operation. My dad had a new dairy barn built in 1963, and as I recall, it had 30 stanchions, which as I look back was a pretty big herd for our road in Williamsburg Township of Dundas County. The Gallingers about half mile away also had a new barn and might have been milking between 30 and 40 head and that was really big.

No, there was no fun in my childhood — milk cows, feed the pigs, bale hay, kill a chicken for supper, sleep and then get up and do it all over again. It was like a work camp!

No, but seriously, there was lots of fun and good times for me growing up. You can’t beat life on a farm; that’s why I chose a career in journalism.

I started out as a writer and editor for newspapers, and then discovered and was drawn to the glamorous, high paying life of an agricultural writer and that’s where I spent more than 35 years writing about Canadian agriculture. I’m still waiting for my ship to come in, however. So far all I’ve seen is a 12-foot rowboat with one oar.

I often think about the changes in agriculture since I was a boy on the farm, and I compare it to the difference between riding in a stagecoach and a SpaceX launch (now don’t get me started on Elon Musk — it might not be kind). But the technology has changed dramatically. There might have been a week or so over my career where I thought I could keep pace with changes in ag technology, but I realize I was just kidding myself. (Is Hoescht still out there? What about UGG?)

A couple weeks ago I was at Olds College in Alberta, learning about something called “agrivoltaics.” That’s a relatively new term, for me anyway, but if you’re interested in grazing sheep or cattle or even cropping under a few hundred or few thousand acres of a solar panel array stay tuned for reports on that.

With this column I say hello and I expect to be back in this space in future editions of the Manitoba Co-operator.

The post Lee Hart: Out of the ashes of retirement appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The Canadian livestock sector contributes about 4.8 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions produced in this country, said Sarah Klopatek, director of sustainability research and development with JBS USA.

Why it matters: The Canadian beef sector’s 2030 targets include maintaining sequestered carbon in grasslands, plus an extra 3.4 million tonnes sequestered per year, and dropping greenhouse gas emission intensity by 33 per cent.

On a world scale, that is a decently low number, she told attendees at the annual general meeting of the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef in Calgary in late September. Still, she added, more can always be done in Canada and around the world to reduce the impact agriculture has on the environment.

“Sustainability is a journey and not a destination,” she said.

Klopatek cited pressure from the public and various sectors of the food and finance industry for farmers and ranchers to improve their practices environmentally.

In the livestock sector, there have been significant gains due to improvements in livestock genetics, nutrition and management, she added.

“For example, Canada is leading the world in terms of efficient beef production, according to United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization,” she said, referring to a world map, which showed Canada producing 400 to 450 kilograms of beef per animal compared to some parts of the world that only produce 50 to 100 kg per head.

If producers can produce more meat from fewer animals, it reduces the environmental footprint.

“And there is new technology and advances coming along every day which can help Canadian beef producers improve production efficiency at home. And perhaps that technology can be used to help other countries improve their beef production efficiency as well.”

Heading for net zero?

Klopatek, who studied at the University of California-Davis and now lives in Colorado, said getting to net-zero emissions may never be possible, but it is something to work toward.

It’s a goal that organizations and farmers are also pondering. In September, researchers at the University of Manitoba were promised $7.6 million to explore barriers and necessary steps toward net-zero farming.

Hovering in the background is Ottawa’s own goal for Canada to reach net zero by 2050, which has led farm groups like the Grain Growers of Canada to launch industry-specific strategic road maps to curb emissions in their sectors.

Who’s on the hook?

There is a perception within industry that consumers are the big driver behind the push for greater sustainability, Klopatek said, but that isn’t necessarily the case. Surveys show that, while consumers may say sustainability is important, they aren’t necessarily willing to pay more for sustainably produced food products.

According to the federal 2023 Survey on Consumer Perceptions of Food, 68 per cent of respondents said they looked for environmentally sustainable foods at least sometimes, but only 53 per cent said they would pay more for them, a decrease of 10 per cent from the previous year.

Klopatek said the bigger push is coming from the financial sector, which is urging all companies to work on measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, leading to a net zero economy. She pointed to BlackRock, one of the world’s leading finance and investment consulting firms.

In a 2022 open letter to executives of companies that BlackRock clients invest in, BlackRock co-founder and chief executive officer Larry Fink said, “I believe the decarbonizing of the global economy is going to create the greatest investment opportunity of our lifetime. It will also leave behind the companies that don’t adapt, regardless of what industry they are in.”

In the same letter, he said his firm is “asking companies to set short-, medium-, and long-term targets for greenhouse gas reductions.”

Getting technical

Klopatek said it is important for beef producers to understand what the numbers represent, and there is a difference between direct and indirect emissions.

The number cited for Canada’s livestock industry (4.8 per cent of Canada’s emissions) reflects enteric emissions. Those are produced by livestock digestive systems or are related to manure management and are direct emissions.

However on a broader or global scale, the agriculture and agri-food industries produce about 30 per cent of the total emissions, she said. That number includes direct as well as indirect emissions such as those related to burning fossil fuels used for crop and livestock feed production, land use changes, operating farm machinery and transportation, emissions from processing and other activities.

“I like to think of direct emissions as the apple and the combination of direct and indirect emissions as the apple pie,” said Klopatek. “So as we talk about environmental footprint, we need to know what the numbers reflect. Is it the apple or the apple pie?”

The movement toward sustainability and reducing agriculture’s environmental footprint is also taking place with the backdrop of a growing world population.

Klopatek noted that, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the demand for meat and protein will continue to grow over the next 25 years. The organization forecasted that, between 2005 and 2050, global beef demand would grow by 66 per cent, pork would rise by 43 per cent, poultry would go up by 121 per cent, eggs would jump by 65 per cent and sheep and lamb product demand was expected to rise by 92 per cent.

That’s the difference between the world producing 64 million tonnes of beef in 2005 and producing 106 million tonnes of beef by 2050.

“So the challenge for the livestock industry is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while at the same time producing more food,” said Klopatek.

And while Canada and the U.S. livestock industries have relatively low greenhouse gas emissions, that’s not the case for cattle in Brazil and parts of Africa, which she said can have emissions 10 to 50 times greater.

“It is in those developing countries where there is the greatest opportunity to make improvements in increasing beef production efficiency and reducing GHG emissions.”

Staying the course

Klopatek said several production and management practices can help reduce emissions, but the big three are livestock genetics, livestock nutrition and livestock management.

Sustainability is about more than just the carbon footprint.

“Producing beef is definitely part of the sustainability story,” she said.”The Canadian beef industry has reduced its carbon footprint by 15 per cent — the apple pie of emissions —over the past 10 years.

“We continue to fine tune our journey in producing a better beef animal that has higher yield, higher dressing percentage, produces more food for people, while at the same time reducing emissions, using less land and less water per kilogram of beef.

“It’s not just about reducing carbon. When we talk about sustainability we have to look at a number of factors — the bigger picture.”

The post Good work done on beef sustainability, but more left to do: researcher appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The Western Applied Research Corporation study found that with a dry season on the horizon, a mid-to-low wheat seeding rate achieved the best yield. If the moisture outlook is good, farmers can go with a higher seeding rate.

Why it matters: Spring has sprung and wheat tops the seeding agenda for many grain operations.

That project, launched in 2022, was in response to the cycle of drier growing seasons that has gripped the Prairies, WARC research manager Jessica Enns said. “Some producers were asking if the standard provincial recommendation for wheat seeding rates should be adjusted due to the dry weather.”

The project kicked off at two sites in the first year, expanding in 2023 to eight sites in Saskatchewan, including Prince Albert, Melfort, Yorkton, Indian Head, Swift Current and Scott. Seven seeding rates were tested at all sites, ranging from 10 to 40 plants per square foot.

Results found that optimum wheat yields at sites with lower moisture emerged with a target plant count between 15 and 25 plants per square foot, for an average density of 20. When moisture jumped, that ideal target shifted to 25-35 plants per foot, or an average of 30.

“Those sites where the growing season moisture was below 70 per cent of the long-term average were described as the low-moisture group, while sites with moisture greater than 70 per cent of the long-term average were placed in the high-moisture group,” Enns said.

Hard red spring wheat varieties planted on each site were selected according to the popular varieties in that region. At Scott and Indian Head, they seeded AAC Wheatland; at Melfort it was AAC Starbuck; at Prince Albert, AAC Brandon went in the ground; at Swift Current it was CDC Adamant VB and at Yorkton, AAC Alida VB was the variety of choice.

To determine the performance of each wheat plot, they measured yield, head density, tillering, head size and length.

Optimum-yielding plots in low-moisture conditions had an average of 55 seed heads per square foot and between one and two tillers per plant. At high-moisture sites, the ideal density plots produced between one and two tillers and had both the highest head densities and the highest yields.

Researchers found that in both low- and high-moisture groups, a seeding rate that produced between one and two tillers per plant was optimum. In plots with more tillering, competition led to lower yields.

In a perhaps unsurprising result, they also found that greater yields translated to lower protein on all sites.

“We don’t have a specific moisture number, but these results suggest if conditions are dry at seeding and it appears to be a dry growing season ahead, opt for the lower plant count,” Enns said.

Manitoba Agriculture cereal specialist Anne Kirk said that, while they’ve done similar seeding rate trials in Manitoba, they didn’t split the sites into high- and low-moisture locations. It’s impossible to say if results would be the same as they were in Saskatchewan.

“Based on our research in Manitoba, we found that wheat yielded similarly across a range of plant stands, so if yields ended up being low, then it would have been more economical to seed at a lower seeding rate,” Kirk said.

High plant stands did not correlate with reduced yields, although Kirk noted that might be because those trials had adequate moisture.

Recent surveys have shown that Manitoba farmers tend to use higher seeding rates than the other Prairie provinces. Kirk said researchers’ best guess is that the province’s typically higher moisture potential supports that practice. It may also be because Manitoban farmers are targeting uniform plant stands and tillering for fungicide application.

Manitoba Agriculture recommends targeting a plant stand of 23 to 28 plants per square foot. Kirk said she suggests aiming for the higher end of that.

Some producers will seed for an even higher plant stand, Kirk added. However, plot trials haven’t supported that. “We haven’t found a justification to really increase those seeding rates past that 28-30 plants per square foot.”

Seedbed moisture is adequate at present, so Kirk said she sees no reason to not stick to status quo seeding rates.

Despite the Saskatchewan research, Kirk argues that under lower-yield potential scenarios, seeding rates should be increased because the wheat will be less efficient at using resources. Under high-yield potential scenarios, farmers can get away with slightly reducing seeding rates.

The post Steady as she goes on wheat seeding rates appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

That was the message from one technology expert speaking to the Alberta Beef Industry Conference earlier this year.

Why it matters: Agriculture, like other sectors, is wrestling with how AI can benefit the business

Shawn Kanungo, a globally recognized innovation strategist based in Edmonton, argues that the future of beef must be more than maintaining the status quo. The new business strategy, he said, should include questions like “what is our bold ambition?” or “how do we become remarkably different, a freak, or unique?”

That will require being bold and innovative and trying uncomfortable ideas, said Kanungo.

“Get up every day and ask yourself, ‘what can I do today to get myself fired?’” he suggested.

Kanungo didn’t lay out a step-by-step program for following that advice, but he said it starts by embracing AI, or at least acknowledging that its existence is now a fact of society.

“Start playing around with it,” he said. “It is here to stay.

“In the future there will be two types of leaders. There will be leaders who leverage AI in their business, and those who don’t will be leaders who are irrelevant.”

He pointed to the power of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence app launched less than two years ago.

A chatbot developed by OpenAI and based on a large language model, ChatGPT can answer a wide range of questions, write essays or emails and comes with analytical features, all using a few user-generated prompts.

It has since become a global phenomenon and source of controversy as its use creeps into the circles of academia and beyond.

For the beef producer, though, it could provide valuable insight into farm management.

Ahead of the beef conference, Kanungo had fed a 100,000-line Microsoft Excel document with statistics on global meat consumption into ChatGPT. Then he asked the software to tease out information relevant to Canadian and Alberta beef producers.

The result was a list of the countries that produce the most meat, which meats were most popular and other analytic insights that could be put to marketing use.

“It cooked that information to come up with a summary of these facts. It is incredible,” Kanungo said.

He also talked about text to video technology — a sophisticated AI-driven process that translates written text into dynamic video content.

He demonstrated AI language technology that could use his image, but convert his words into any language in the world, which could open the door for businesses to connect with world customers in their language. A marketing project that would have taken a marketing team hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars a few years ago could now be produced in a few minutes, he said.

“With AI technology, a 10-year-old boy anywhere in rural Alberta with a computer could create this in seconds,” he said. “AI is reimagining how we look at work.”

More people in world have access to Generative AI technology on their smart phones than the global population that has access to clean water and toilets, he said. About 85 per cent, or 6.92 billion people, have smartphones, while 75 per cent, or six billion, have access to clean water, and only 55 per cent (4.5 billion) have decent sanitation.

Putting it in practice

One visit to Titan Land and Cattle Company west of Edmonton, highlighted how much data the beef industry collects on each animal’s health care, rate of gain, production costs, and more, Kanungo noted.

“This industry is all about analyzing data to optimize efficiency and that is exactly what AI technology is designed to do.”

Making use of new technology is part of the picture when it comes to attracting and keeping young people in the business, he added.

The question isn’t just about how to get young people involved in agriculture, but more specifically about “how do we show young people they can improve their status” by working in ag?

Ag must present itself as an avenue where those young people are valued and improve or appreciate their self-worth, he said. That involves encouraging them to use new technology, be innovative, be creative and sometimes allowing this new thinking to be disruptive.

One of the uncomfortable but important characteristics of being a good leader is stepping aside and saying “I don’t know” and asking others for help, he said.

“Being a good leader today, being disruptive, is not about thinking, it is about acting,” said Kanungo. “Use the technology. It is about deliberately and consciously exposing yourself to challenges. It’s about waking up every day and asking ‘how do I make use of that AI technology that guy was talking about?’ It is about sending that moon-shot email to that client you’ve been waiting to work with … it is about waking up every day and not worrying about whether you look like a joke today.

“The most dangerous person in the room is the one who is the most afraid but bold enough to move forward.”

Shawn Kanungo is the author of a bestselling book, “The Bold Ones.”

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It is only a forecast, says Matt Makens with Makens Weather based in Colorado, but the El Nino weather pattern is fizzling out and the La Niña weather pattern is phasing in.

“A lot depends on how quickly that transition occurs,” says Makens, who recently spoke to the Alberta Beef Industry Conference in Calgary.

“But indications are that the transition is moving quickly, which means the La Niña effect will bring moisture and cooler temperatures earlier.”

That means the Canadian Prairies will likely see rain in April and May, and if the transition slows, it could delay that moisture until June and July. Makens said things are shaping up for prairie moisture early in the spring and summer, turning drier toward August and September.

Makens provides weather consulting services to CanFax, CattleFax, the National Cattleman’s Beef Association and many producers across North America. He noted that after the sun, El Niño and La Niña are the second biggest factors driving global weather patterns.

El Niño is a weather pattern that occurs in the Pacific Ocean, usually every three to five years. Winds warm surface water from the equator and move east toward Central and South America. The southern part of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest (including Western Canada) tend to be warmer and drier than average, whereas the central and southern regions of the U.S. tend to be wetter and cooler than average.

La Niña has the opposite effect. During La Niña events, trade winds are stronger, pushing more warm water toward Asia. Off the west coast of the Americas, upwelling increases, bringing cold, nutrient-rich water to the surface.

These cold waters in the Pacific push the jet stream northward. This tends to cause drought in the southern United States and heavy rains and flooding in the Pacific Northwest and Canada.

During a La Niña year, winter temperatures are warmer than normal in the south and cooler than normal in the north.

Makens notes the difference been El Niño and La Niña ocean temperatures is only one degree Celsius.

“In most conditions, and certainly in this conference centre, if the temperature changed one degree most of us wouldn’t notice,” says Makens. “But in the Pacific Ocean, if the water temperature warms half a degree, that can launch the El Niño weather pattern and if it cools half a degree, that launches the La Niña weather pattern.”

El Niño, which on average influences Canadian weather for up to 18 months, “generally is not good news for western Canadian beef producers,” says Makens, because it usually means dry conditions for Canada.

However, it is generally good news for the North American beef industry because it brings moisture to the major beef producing states of Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico.

When the weather pattern switches to La Niña, it brings cooler winds and temperatures from Alaska and the Aleutian Islands into Western Canada — snow to mountains in British Columbia and, depending on the strength, includes moisture to the Prairies as well.

Looking ahead, Makens says his spring forecast for March through May suggests as El Niño fizzles out and La Niña moves in, there will be moisture for the Prairies. He’s optimistic for April and May rain.

For the summer forecast, June through August when La Niña settles in, the moisture outlook across Western Canada doesn’t look too bad and it will likely be somewhat cooler.

For September through November, he expects about 88 percent of the La Niña effect will be over Western Canada, with colder temperatures and moisture generally favourable for B.C. and the central Prairies.

For winter 2024-25, he is forecasting a cold winter with about average precipitation.

Makens noted a couple of wild cards. One is the 2024 wildfire season and its severity. A bad season that produces a lot of smoke will add to the cooling trend.

Another wildcard was an underwater volcanic eruption near the Polynesian Kingdom of Tonga in the Pacific Ocean in January 2022, which blasted 50 million acre-feet of water into the atmosphere. It will take two or three years for that moisture to dissipate and in the meantime, it can have a warming effect.

Makens is forecasting that the cooler trend of La Niña will affect Canadian weather for the next two to three years.

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As I drove out past a storage area last Thursday, I figured a person could do all right just with the contract to haul away (and then cash in) all the beer, pop and water bottle empties. I’ve got to get my name in early for that job next year.

Jeff Just of Yorkton, SK (Just Acre Farms) is one of the show staff members who will be staying around for a few days after the show to wrap things up. Just and his family raise a few purebred Hereford cattle at Yorkton. He joins the setup team about a week before the event and then stays for a few days to help with the clean up and tear down. Any time you get nearly 30,000 people walking through your yard it’s going to need some attention.

Just says it takes a lot of organizing to schedule the move-in by some 400 exhibitors — a few need only a table and a few chairs, while others show up with a few million dollars worth of machinery that’s 80 feet wide.

Free tire gauge almost as good as pen

I may be biased (I did snag a free tire gauge) but it is a very good show. There is always lots to see at events such as Farm Progress Show in Regina and Agri-Trade in Red Deer, for example, but at Ag In Motion you REALLY get to see it. There’s about 100 acres of crop plot demonstrations alone with another large area of field scale equipment demonstrations.

And along with that a person can wander the “streets and avenues” of the central show area. If you’re interested in just about any aspect of crop and livestock production, and farm management there are dozens of information booths, service providers and vendors to answer your questions — show and maybe even sell you a product.

I talked to Merle Hoffman of AIM Industries (no relation to the AIM show) based in Regina and they make one of the best grain bin hopper bottoms in the world. It’s not going to twist or torque or puncture if you have to move it around. Visit aimind.ca.

And if you’re feeding cattle, Jasmine Brodziak with Agrimatics in Saskatoon says her company has developed an excellent controller for the mixer wagon. They earlier developed the Libra controller for grain carts. Now this Libra TMR (total mixed ration) device weighs and measures all beef or dairy ration combinations. Once you get it programmed you can daydream while you’re feeding cattle — it will provide you with the alerts you need. Visit: www.agrimatics.com

Don’t make eye contact

I try not to make eye contact with some of the exhibitors…I could end up buying something. Brent Geransky of Premium Power Packs is a very compelling marketer for a portable power pack that will boost a vehicle battery at least a dozen times before the power pack itself needs to be charged. (God, he was good. He had me at “hello”.)

But wait, there is more. The power pack comes with a number of adaptors so it can also be used to power your laptop and cell phone and it lasts for hours. But wait there is more. And the power pack even has a built in flashlight so you can actually see where you are going and what you are doing if you do need to charge something. And all this power in a convenient, durable case that isn’t much larger than your average paperback novel. But wait, there is more. If you look up the charger on Geransky’s website at www.premiumpowerpacks.com you can even buy one and have it mailed out.

Watch out for the snow cone abusers

Never mind the fact that Dow Agro Sciences has a great line of crop protection products, but if you’re passing their booth next year you can also get a free snow cone and choose from about 40 different flavors. They’ll also sell you a few tonnes of Nexera canola seed if you need it, but the snow cones are free. And you can keep getting back in the snow cone line at least 30 times before they call security and have you escorted out — or so I have been told. Like, anyone would consider that on a 30 C day.

I am always impressed with the cattle handling equipment…this is heavy duty stuff from a number of leading manufacturers. Not only will this equipment not break, but these systems now feature more gates, sliding and hinged panels making it possible to reach any part of the animal without fighting with bars.

And if I ever go into the silage business here is something I need that I had not seen before — a silage fluffer. That’s what the Dairyland Agro guy called it. It’s a large 10 foot wide roller type tool that fits on the front of a larger 500 hp tractor. The roller has a series of knotched fins across and around it — that’s on the front of the tractor. And on the back of this tractor is a row of steel drums for packing (they resemble the wheels on a train). The idea is that after you dump the silage, use the silage spreader (fluffer) on the front to spread it and even it out, and then along comes the big packer tool at the back to pack it all in. It provides up to 40 per cent more compaction. Visit: www.dairylandagro.com

If only I needed it

There was a lot of great stuff at AIM that I don’t really need. Sundog Solar was there with a complete line of solar watering systems (www.sundogsolarwind.com), and Derek Verhelst who has just taken over the Kelln Solar watering business was also demonstrating their long established product line. Verhelst demonstrated a solar powered waterer that’s activated with a motion sensor. As soon as an animal sticks its nose in the trough the water starts bubbling up. Another great idea. Visit www.kellnsolar.com

I have to admit on my final day at Ag In Motion I did eat “The Best Beef In The World”. This was at the Norpac Beef booth. Norpac is a family owned beef producing and meat processing plant in Norwich, ON owned by the Heleniak family. They featured some beef-on-a-bun products. They prefer Limousin and Belgian Blue cattle for their meat program. Everything is corn finished and hormone and antibiotic free.

Animals are processed and the carcasses are shrouded (wrapped with a cloth) and dry aged — more shrink, but better quality, more flavour etc. And their beef on a bun sandwiches were very good. I think Norpac came up with The Best Beef in the World slogan. I haven’t tried all the different beef breeds in the world, so I can’t endorse that claim. I just know that at that moment last Thursday when I sat down for lunch, it was very good beef. Visit: www.norpacbeef.ca

So AIM #3 is in the history books. It’s getting bigger every year. Maybe by July 2018 I will have bought cropland and/or cattle so I can be an official Ag In Motion tire kicker. I’ll have to go back to show anyway, for sure, to ask a few questions. I can’t find the instructions for this tire gauge anywhere.

Lee Hart’s article was originally published on the Grainews Blog.

Lee Hart is a field editor with Grainews based in Calgary. Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by email at lee@fbcpublishing.com

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That was my take home message from Day 2 (Wednesday) at the Ag In Motion (AIM) farm show near at Langham, Sask. The lineup at the ice cream vendor next to the Grainews booth never stopped all day. Although when your company name is “The Mean Green Ice Cream Machine,” who can resist? Don’t think I go to these shows and only care about food, but obviously it is important to a lot of AIM goers as well. On a sunny, 30 C day ice cream is a pretty good idea.

The longer you are there, the more you realize just how big this farm show is. I don’t think I ran into one person who didn’t say “Boy, there is lots to see here.” One of my loyal readers, Don Gibson, who farms near Sangudo, Alta. (just northwest of Edmonton) stopped by to claim a Grainews ball cap. He brought the RV unit and parked it near the show. He knew there would be too much to see in a day, so he and his travelling companions were spending the night at AIM.

By my rough but experienced estimate I figured there were nearly one million visitors to Ag in Motion Wednesday. I could be wrong. But I’m guessing about half of those were from western Canadian Hutterite colonies — Warner, Rosetown, Kyle, Blaine Lake, Kindersley, Swift Current, Moose Jaw and many others.

It’s always good to talk to these producers. I always learn something. John Walter from the Greenleaf Colony at Blaine Lake was telling me about what sounds like a very nice and very busy provincially inspected meat processing plant they have on their farm. They processed about 200 head of elk and deer last fall, process about 15 hogs per week and custom kill, cut and wrap beef on a regular basis, poultry, you name it — it’s just a very busy place. They also have a retail area at the plant and supply meat — including burgers and sausage — to local retailers. I’d like to have a look at that someday.

The Grainews booth oasis

The Grainews booth/tent was a bit like an oasis, may be even like Lourdes at times. They came with their canes and walkers, young and old, to sit for a while on the shaded picnic tables to take a break. There was one couple farming near Moose Jaw who stopped by with their Red Fox Lab pup… they said the pup needed a break; I think they did too. They took a break, got an ice cream from Mean Green Machine — and yes, the pup did have a nap — and then headed on their way.

I spoke to a young fella from Ukraine who is working on a grain farm near Borden, Sask. this summer. He did work for a big corporate farm at home — a grain operation covering about 250,000 acres — but he said while the owners did OK, the workers weren’t paid very well. He also worked for a while in Denmark and then thought he would like to try Canada. He loves it. He was a farm kid at home and likes the feel of farming in Saskatchewan. He was interested to see if he could stay.

Dry growing conditions across most of Saskatchewan was the story of the day according to producers. The only farmer who said too much moisture was still a concern came from the Vegreville area of northeastern Alberta. Crops were looking pretty good in that area, but they weren’t far from being at the saturation point.

Loaders, pumps and mixers

Aside from a couple people who came to the booth with canes and walkers, one young fella drove up with a small loader. John Stoop, with Steqcan equipment, a dealer for the Giant brand of loaders, forklifts and telehandlers, dropped off his card. He’s a good Ottawa valley boy from Westmeath, west of Ottawa. He had a booth at the show introducing western farmers to their line of equipment. He mentioned that Westmeath is near Arnprior, which immediately took me down memory lane. I told John I knew Arnprior very well. The first job I ever had as a reporter was at the Arnprior Chronicle. That was many years ago now. It pained me to tell John, “I worked there probably long before you were born.”

Mikhail Sorokin is with Fireball Equipment over in the livestock area. If you need a pump for any reason Fireball has it. Their products aren’t specific to livestock — that’s just where their booth was located — but whether you have a 45-gallon barrel, a fuel tank in the back or your truck, or are filling a container ship with a million gallons of diesel fuel, Fireball has a pump for you.

And if you are feeding cattle at total mixed ration — whether it be beef or dairy — have a talk with Jasmine Brodziak at Agrimatics of Saskatoon. They’ve developed the Libra line of controllers and weighing software. Their first product was developed to weigh and measure products going into grain carts. Now they’ve developed the Libra equipment for preparing Total Mixed Rations in mixer wagons — “a revolutionary ration weighing and data management solution.”

I haven’t even mentioned the acres upon acres of red, green, blue and yellow farm machinery for both crops and livestock, or large plots of canola, cereals, soybeans, corn, pulse crops and all the support products that go along with machinery and crop production. Maybe if the lineup at the ice cream stand wasn’t so long I’d have more time to look at this stuff. A person has to set their priorities.

— Lee Hart is a field editor with Grainews based in Calgary. Check out his regular blog HERE.

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