The Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame came calling for two such people July 17. University of Manitoba canola scientist and researcher Michael Eskin and long-time farm journalist Allan Dawson stood up for their induction ceremony at Exhibition Place at the Red River Ex in Winnipeg.

Every year, the Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame honours deserving nominees for their contribution to agriculture.

Dawson, who retired from the Manitoba Co-operator last July, was lauded by the hall of fame for his work to build “awareness and understanding in the agricultural community through unbiased details and well-researched reporting on complex issues affecting the industry, and those who make their living from it.”

Dawson, 67, grew up in the Altamont area and has worked in ag journalism since 1980. He served as farm director at CISV Radio and as a freelancer before joining the Co-operator in 1983. Later, he and six colleagues founded a new farm paper, Farmers Independent Weekly, which merged with the Co-operator in 2007.

His work has earned accolades from the North American Agricultural Journalists Association — a group for which he served as president in 2022-23 — as well as the Canadian Farm Writers Federation and the Manitoba Institute of Agrologists.

Having interviewed many of the hall’s previous inductees over his career and worked with other honourees during his previous stint with the provincial ag department, Dawson said “to be in their company, it’s unbelievable to me.”

Along with those who nominated him and wrote letters of support, Dawson also thanked his extended family.

“My work-life balance wasn’t the best, but my family allowed me time to pursue the work I loved and found meaningful and I’m so grateful for that,” he said.

Canola contribution

Eskin, 82, came to the University of Manitoba from London, England, in 1968 and has since played “a pivotal role in transforming canola into the country’s most profitable food crop” and mentoring the next generation of scientists in Canadian agri-food, the hall of fame said.

His work has included characterizing enzymes responsible for fatty acid breakdown in canola, demonstrating its optimal frying parameters and stability for various food products and highlighting both the “hedonic attributes” — that is, the human acceptability and sensory preference of a food product — and preservation of canola oil in foods.

Honours over Eskin’s career have included the Order of Canada, Order of Manitoba and awards from the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology, Institute of Food Technologists and American Oil Chemists’ Society.

Of his acclaimed university textbook, Biochemistry of Foods, he noted its publisher recently contacted him with plans for a fourth edition: “I guess I’ll do it; I don’t think I’ll be around for the fifth edition,” he joked at the ceremony.

Eskin also launched into an a capella song — borrowing musically from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado — about the perils and pitfalls of food science.

“Those synthetic foods that fill our desires with tastes that are not really there/You think you’re eating a raspberry pie, but it’s really a new-flavoured pear,” he sang.

‘An opportunity’

During the ceremony, hall of fame president Ted Eastley noted the hall’s gallery space at Keystone Centre in Brandon “has reached its physical capacity,” which he said poses logistical challenges. The hall’s board is working to find space for future inductee plaques.

“We also see this as an opportunity, a chance to modernize our hall of fame and embrace technology to tell the captivating stories of our inductees, forge connections with youth and preserve our cherished agricultural heritage,” he said.

The ceremony included the presentation of the hall of fame’s annual scholarship, a $1,000 award, to Messina Schrof, who graduated this summer from Sanford Collegiate and plans to attend the University of Manitoba in the fall.

Schrof’s “passion for agriculture is beautifully expressed” in her application letter and vision “to preserve the essence of family farming” is inspiring, said hall of fame board member Annette Young.

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Each started with a seed.

That’s why getting farmers to pay more for plant breeding — often referred to as “value creation” — is important. It’s also contentious.

Nobody wants to pay more and a lot of farmers worry royalties will enrich seed companies more than farmers.

Around $180 million a year — $100 million from the private sector and $80 million from governments and farmers — is invested in Canadian crop variety development annually, according to the 2018 JRG Consulting Group study. It says Canadian certified annual seed sales are around $2.6 billion. That’s seven per cent of variety development funding.

By some estimates, Canada needs to double cereal- and pulse-breeding spending to stay competitive with other major grain exporters.

The seed trade contends that its Variety Use Agreement, which charges the farmer a fee to plant saved seed, and which is being tested as a pilot project, will benefit both private and public breeders, and ultimately farmers through better varieties.

Most farmers acknowledge they benefit from new crop varieties. Some even concede they should contribute more, but remain wary.

Farmers are almost always price-takers on the inputs they buy and crops they sell, and seed is a major input. For canola seed, which all comes from private firms, it represents almost 25 per cent of total estimated 2020 operating costs, according to Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development (MARD).

By comparison, wheat seed — mainly developed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) with public and farmer money — represents about 11 per cent of operating costs.

MARD estimates farmers will earn a 5.4 per cent return on canola and 4.7 per cent return on wheat this year.

While canola is usually more profitable than wheat, farmers commonly complain canola seed is too expensive.

Farmers also have long memories.

“I cannot stress enough that amendments to the plant breeders’ rights act allows for farmers to retain the right to save, clean, and store seed for their own operations,” they were told in February 2015 by Gerry Ritz, the federal minister of agriculture at the time. “There seems to be some confusion around that.”

Five years later the seed industry wants a royalty on farm-saved seed.

Farmers would still be allowed to save seed from varieties not covered by UPOV ’91, but for how long? Seed officials say unprotected varieties will be available so long as farmers buy them, but the record shows some seed firms have discontinued varieties, arguing the replacements are better.

Some varieties get deregistered. Farmers can still grow them but buyers are obliged to apply the lowest grade for the intended class.

In 2012, Canadian farmers were permitted to start saving seed from Roundup Ready 1 soybeans after the patent expired, but finding them wasn’t easy. One retailer confided he wouldn’t sell them because he’d be cutting his own throat.

Monsanto also said its new soybeans were so much better that farmers wouldn’t want old varieties anyway. Eight years later some farmers are growing the old varieties.

With soybean seed costing around $95 an acre — 47 per cent of estimated operating costs — there’s incentive to find cheaper seed.

Most major farm groups say the federal government must continue funding AAFC’s plant breeding even though Ottawa has been cutting it for years.

But with a ballooning projected deficit ($343 billion) and debt ($1.2 trillion), no matter which party is in power, there will be pressure to cut costs.

As Tyler McCann, interim executive director of the Canadian Seed Trade Association, says, “the status quo is not sustainable.”

Farmers have some tough decisions to make. If AAFC breeding programs don’t survive, producers will have to rely on private companies for new cereal varieties and have no control over how the money is used.

As a “plan B” they would do well to investigate taking over AAFC’s breeding program.

It’s not as radical as it might seem. Canadian farmers already cover about half of AAFC’s variety development and related research budget.

Turning the department’s breeding programs over to farmers would be better than losing AAFC and the competition it brings to the marketplace.

Ideally, the federal government would give it to farmers for free and invest some of its annual savings to help fund a farmer-owned and -administered program.

Numerous studies show plant breeding provides a good return on investment and AAFC has a stellar reputation.

Financing this would require farmers to pay more through their existing research checkoff organizations. However, they would be the ones setting research priorities and they would know they are capturing the full value created from their own investment.

It could be cheaper than the alternative.

The post Reporter’s Take: Farmer-owned AAFC? appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Co-operator reporter Allan Dawson has been recognized for his work by the U.S. National Association of Agriculture Journalists (NAAJ).

The group is in the midst of its 2020 writing competition and is releasing results from individual categories.

He was awarded third place in the “Series” category for his work on the changing international trade landscape.

Judges praised his “fresh Canadian perspective” and “solid analysis” on the effect of the Trump presidency on trade and the profound impact of a bilateral U.S.-China deal on world trade.

Dawson was the lone Canadian on the podium. First place went to Todd Neeley of DTN/The Progressive Farmer and second place was awarded to Mikkel Pates, of AgWeek.

There were three honourable mentions, including Ron Lyseng of The Western Producer.

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Seed Manitoba 2017, available now at Manitoba Agriculture offices, has a variety of valuable information – such as soybean maturity – to help farmers decide which soybean varieties to grow. Last September, Manitoba Agriculture’s pulse crop specialist Dennis Lange talked with reporter Allan Dawson about how soybean maturity ratings are made.

The post VIDEO: Rating soybean maturity with pulse crop specialist Dennis Lange appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

After an all-night session at the Manitoba Legislature, Bill 24 has passed its final reading and received royal assent.

Better known as the Red Tape Reduction and Government Efficiency Act, Bill 24 covers legislation ranging from consumer protection and labour relations, to residential tenancies and transportation of dangerous goods, but it has been proposed changes to hog production that garnered the most attention as the legislation made its towards becoming law.

“It’s good news for us of course, to be allowed to build barns without the requirement of an anaerobic digester, so it’s a step in the right direction,” said George Matheson, chairman of the Manitoba Pork Council. “It didn’t surprise me that it passed.”

The newly passed act amends The Environment Act, removing general prohibitions for the expansion of hog barns and manure storage facilities. Bill 24 also strikes the winter manure application ban from the Environment Act, although winter application would continue to be prohibited for all livestock operations in Manitoba under the Livestock Manure and Mortalities Management Regulation.

• Read more: Hog production faces opposing ideologies

While hog producers have never been banned outright from building new barns, the previous requirement that all new barns install costly anaerobic digesters effectively made new barn construction unattainable, the Pork Council has said.

Matheson said it’s possible that some new construction will begin as early as next year.

“I think that in 2018 we might see a few,” he said. “We’ve got the swine development corporation in place to assist producers with that — It’s one thing to be allowed to build barns, it’s another thing to get them built and go through the permitting process.”

He hopes to see an average of 10 new barns built each year for the next 10 years, enough to cover the current hog shortfall experienced by processors in the province.

“I’d say that’s a realistic goal, I hope we build more than that, but I think that’s very doable,” Matheson said.

Keystone Agricultural Producers were also pleased to hear the bill had passed its third reading.

“Clearly the government has made a commitment to taking agricultural issues seriously and dedicating the legislative time necessary to find resolutions to them,” said KAP general manager James Battershill.

The activist group Hog Watch Manitoba had opposed Bill 24, but could not be reached for comment before press time.

— With files from Allan Dawson

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VanRaes won the silver award in the press feature category for an article that appeared in Country Guide on halal meat. She picked up the bronze award in the weekly press reporting category for her article “Get your goat on,” and a bronze award in the electronic media-audio category for an item on a farmer’s near miss with toxic gas in the chicken coop that appeared on Glacier FarmMedia’s new podcast Between the Rows.

Dawson was awarded silver in the press editorial category for his column, “Canada needs Churchill, but do grain farmers?”

Other winners within the GFM network of publications include reporter Lisa Guenther, who won gold in the press column category for her Grainews column “Facing the truth about climate change.” Guenther also won bronze in the technical feature category for her article “Feeding the harvest crew.”

Grainews editor Leeann Minogue received bronze in the press editorial category for her column “Bound up by resolutions.”

Robin Booker of the Western Producer was awarded gold in the weekly press reporting category for his article “The one percent clause.” The Western Producer’s Sean Pratt received silver in that category for his story “Monsanto takeover faces tough road.”

Karen Morrison received the bronze award in the feature photograph category. Barb Glen received silver in the news photograph category and William DeKay received the bronze award in that same category.

Country Guide columnist Gerald Pilger was awarded silver in the press column category for his column “The target is glyphosate.”

Two writers with Le Bulletin des agriculteurs, also owned by GFM, received awards from the Quebec Farm Writers Association at the same event. Marie-Josee Parent won the award for the best technical article “Et si on produisait des insectes?” (What if we were producing insects?).

Julie Roy won the award for the best farm profile article “La volonté de réussir” (The will to succeed).

The post Reporters claim national awards appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Manitoba Co-operator staff were recognized with writing awards at the recent North American Agricultural Journalists annual competition in Washington, D.C.

Reporters Allan Dawson and Commodity News Service reporter Terryn Shiels received third place in the Spot News category for their article “Canola crop succumbs to final blow with May 30 frost,” which published last spring.

Co-operator editor Laura Rance placed second in the editorial category for her editorial “Why do women in agriculture go largely unrecognized?” which published in April 2015.

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Morriss was recognized for his commitment to agricultural journalism over the past four decades, as publisher and editor of the Manitoba Co-operator, and Farmers’ Independent Weekly, and as editorial director of Farm Business Communications. He has also been active in provincial and national farm writers’ organizations.

Manitoba Co-operator staff received several awards for their work this past year.

Co-operator reporter Shan­­non VanRaes received silver in the Weekly Press Reporting category for her story on how federal scientists have been muzzled by politics. Allan Dawson received bronze in the Feature Photo category for his photograph of soybeans.

Co-operator editor Laura Rance received gold in the Press Feature category and bronze in Press Columns.

Other FBC staff to bring home awards include:

Gord Gilmour of Country Guide, who won gold in the Technical Feature category, and Bronze in Monthly Press reporting. Freelancer Angela Lovell won gold in Monthly Press Reporting for an article that appeared in Country Guide. Ralph Pearce of Country Guide received bronze. Country Guide writer Maggie Van Camp received silver in the Press Feature category.

Dave Bedard collected silver in the World Wide Web category. Jennifer Blair of Alberta Farmer Express won gold in Weekly Press Reporting.

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(MASC) says its spot loss hail insurance program is similar to what private hail insurance companies offer.

But at least one Manitoba farmer disputes that and says he knows several other farmers whose crops were recently damaged by hail who feel the same.

The farmer, who asked not to be named, said he signed up for MASC’s hail insurance because coverage was automatic so he didn’t have to remember to buy it and because MASC told him it would settle as quickly as private insurance companies. But this farmer says MASC is deferring settlement instead of cutting him a cheque.

Similar?

MASC’s hail insurance is similar to what other companies offer, said David Van Deynze, MASC’s manager of claim services. Unlike AgriInsurance, which MASC administers on behalf of the federal and Manitoba governments, its hail insurance program is not government subsidized and fully commercial.

“You get paid as quickly as we can process it based on the percentage loss of up to $200 an acre for most crops,” Van Deynze said.

It’s clear cut when a crop has been completely destroyed. However, sometimes MASC defers settlements until it can accurately estimate the percentage loss, he added. It depends on the stage the crop was at, how much damage occurred and the type of crop.

There’s good data available to estimate the yield impact on most crops when damaged early in the season or after seed has set, he said. When crops are hailed in between, especially canola, making an accurate estimate is harder.

“That’s when we tend to wait until late summer or early fall when the crop sets seed,” Van Deynze said.

“When you get hail at the midpoint of plant growth sometimes they recover really good and other times not as well,” he said. “It can depend on the growing conditions after the hail.

Accurate

“We’d prefer to be accurate. We don’t want to shortchange the producer and we also don’t want to overpay the producer. We think we can be more accurate by deferring that assessment until later in the year so we can see actually how much seed the crop did set.”

Sometimes MASC will settle a hail claim, which is based on the percentage of damage, but want the farmer not to destroy the crop until it can more accurately estimate the yield loss for purposes of the AgriInsurance program, Van Deynze said.

AgriInsurance insures crop yields for the entire farm, not each field as is the case with hail insurance. Even if farmers aren’t in a claim position their yields are recorded by crop insurance and used to establish insurance coverage. Once MASC appraises a damaged crop the farmer can opt to keep or destroy the damaged crop.

“Once we have our number they are free to do whatever they want, Van Deynze said. “It’s up to them to make the decision that’s best for their farm.”

Cover crops

Often farmers want to work down damaged crops before MASC has estimated the yield loss.

“No farmer likes to drive by a crappy-looking crop every day,” Van Deynze said.

And farmers don’t want to spend money on weed and disease control on a crop that isn’t likely to pay.

Some farmers say they want to work up damaged crops to preserve the nutrients they’ve applied. In fact keeping the crop until fall is the best way to protect those nutrients, says John Heard, soil fertility specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development.

“I’d go as far as to say farmers who rip up their crops now should have to seed a cover crop to protect their nutrients,” he said in a recent interview.

Farmers dissatisfied with an MASC adjuster’s assessment can request a second assessment. If they don’t like either they can take it before an independent appeal tribunal, Van Deynze, said. The second assessment is independent with the second adjuster unaware the crop has been assessed.

Appeal process

If the case goes to the three-member appeal tribunal both the farmer and MASC make their case. The tribunal’s ruling is final.

“We do thousands and thousands of claims (of all types, including hail) and we probably do less than 10 of these (appeals) a year,” Van Deynze said.

As of July 8, MASC had received 820 hail claims. There was a smattering of hail reported last weekend.

Most claims as of July 13 came from two storms — one in the Roseisle, Miami, Thornhill, Morden, Winkler, Pilot Mound, Swan Lake, and Touraud areas June 27 and the other north of Portage la Prairie and in the Brookdale, Deloraine and Waskada areas July 4. There were also claims from several storms near Virden this summer.

On average, MASC gets about 2,000 hail claims a year.

“If we have no more hail for the rest of the year it would be considered a light year, but the scary part is we’re only July 8 so a lot can change between now and October,” Van Deynze said.

The post MASC explains why sometimes it defers hail claims appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Manitoba Co-operator reporter Allan Dawson takes a close look at two fields near Roseisle and Miami, Man., and witnesses the devastating results of a vicious storm that struck the area on the afternoon of June 27.

The post VIDEO: Corn, soybean crops decimated by weekend hailstorm appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.