“Field losses, splits and cracked seed coats increase as moisture content decreases,” he says. “Shatter losses have been shown to increase significantly when seed moisture falls below 11 per cent or when mature beans undergo multiple wetting and drying cycles.”

Because harvest losses increase dramatically when the moisture content is below 11 per cent, harvesting during high humidity such as early morning or late evening or damp conditions may reduce shatter loss, Hellevang notes.

Many times, the discount for delivering beans with a moisture content in excess of 13 per cent may be less than the discount for shatter losses from harvesting overly dry soybeans. He recommends that producers begin harvesting at 14 or 15 per cent moisture to reduce the amount harvested below 11 per cent.

Moisture content can increase by several points with an overnight dew or it can decrease by several points during a day with low humidity and windy conditions. Avoid harvesting when beans are driest, such as afternoons, to maintain moisture and reduce shattering losses.

Changing colour

“Unfortunately, there has not been adequate research examining if immature green soybeans will change colour in storage,” Hellevang says. “Limited studies indicate that green soybeans will tend to stay green in storage. They do not lose their internal green colour caused by chlorophyll, although the surface colour may lighten or mottle somewhat after weeks or months in storage.”

Field losses need to be balanced against the discounts for green seeds in determining when to harvest. Another possibility is harvesting some of the field and leaving the portion with the green soybeans unharvested, he says.

Equalizing moisture content

Soybean moisture variation may lead to storage and marketing losses. Operating an aeration fan will help move moisture from wet beans to drier beans. Air going past wet beans picks up moisture, and that moisture will transfer to drier beans as the air goes past them.

Moisture movement will be minimal without aeration airflow. Hellevang suggests initially running the fan longer than is required to cool the grain to even out the moisture content. The moisture will not be all the same, but it should become more uniform.

Soybeans at 11 per cent moisture have similar storage characteristics as wheat or corn at 13.5 to 14 per cent moisture, so an allowable storage time (AST) chart for cereal grains can be used to estimate allowable storage times for soybeans.

For example, soybeans at 16 per cent moisture content would be similar to cereal grains at about 19 per cent moisture, so soybeans would be expected to have an AST of about 70 days at 50°. The AST is reduced to 35 days at 60° and extended to about 140 days at 40°.

Drying options

The recommended maximum moisture content for air-drying is about 16 per cent moisture, with an airflow rate of at least one cubic foot per minute per bushel (cfm/bu.) during October. The amount of natural-air drying that will occur in late October and November is limited in northern states.

The equilibrium moisture content of soybeans for air-drying at 40 F (4.5 C) and 70 per cent relative humidity is 13.7 per cent, but even with an airflow rate of one cfm/bu., drying soybeans with 16 per cent moisture will take about 70 days. Adding supplemental heat to raise the air temperature by 5 F (2.4 C) will permit drying the soybeans to about 11 per cent moisture in about 55 days.

Only about one-half of the beans would be expected to dry by mid-November, when outdoor temperatures become too cold to dry efficiently. Adding heat would cause the beans on the bottom of the bin to be dried to a lower moisture content and it would increase drying speed only slightly. Cool the soybeans to between 20 and 30° for winter storage and complete drying in the spring. Hellevang recommends starting to dry when outdoor temperatures are averaging about 40°.

Increasing the airflow rate will increase the drying speed. However, the fan horsepower required to achieve the higher airflow rate becomes excessive unless the grain depth is very shallow.

For a soybean depth of 22 feet, the rule of thumb is that each 1,000 bushels of soybeans will need about one horsepower of fan to achieve an airflow rate of one cfm/bu. Achieving an airflow rate of 1.5 cfm/bu. will require about 2-1/2 horsepower per 1,000 bushels, and an airflow rate of two cfm/bu. will need about five horsepower per 1,000 bushels.

The type of fan greatly affects the airflow provided per horsepower, so use a fan selection software program such as the one developed by the University of Minnesota. It is available on the NDSU grain drying and storage website (https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/graindrying).

Soybeans can be dried in a high-temperature dryer, but the temperature needs to be limited to minimize damage to the beans. Refer to the manufacturer’s recommendations for maximum drying temperature. Typically, the maximum drying temperature for non-food soybeans is about 130 F (54.5 C). Even at that temperature, some skins and beans will be cracked.

One study found that with a dryer temperature of 130 F (54.5 C), 50 to 90 per cent of the skins were cracked and 20 to 70 per cent of the beans were cracked. Another study found that 30 per cent of the seed coats were cracked if the drying air relative humidity was 30 per cent, and 50 per cent of the skins and about eight per cent of the beans were cracked at 20 per cent relative humidity.

The relative humidity is reduced by one-half for each 20° that the air is warmed. Therefore, if air at 40 F (4.5 F) and 80 per cent relative humidity is warmed to 60°, the relative humidity is reduced to 40 per cent, and if it is heated to 80°, the relative humidity is reduced to 20 per cent. Monitor the amount of damage occurring during drying and regulate the temperature to obtain the acceptable amount of damage.

Most dryer fires occur due to trash accumulating in the dryer. Monitor the grain flow in the dryer and periodically clean the dryer to reduce the potential for a fire.

Food soybeans and seed beans must not have damage to the seed coat, so natural-air or low-temperature drying is the preferred drying method, Hellevang says.

For more information, do an internet search for NDSU soybean drying.

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That raises concern for those of us brought up in the strong tradition of observing Remembrance Day. Without parents or grandparents to remind us of their service and their sacrifice, will it be forgotten?

Apparently not, if the arrival of the Andrew Mynarski Memorial Lancaster bomber to Winnipeg last summer was any indication. Only one of two Lancasters still flying, it is maintained at the Canadian Heritage Warplane Museum in Ontario. During its four-day stay, visitors could climb through the aircraft and get a sense of what it would have been like to spend hours of danger in those cramped quarters.

If you didn’t mind waiting an hour or two in line, that is. While the crowd was sprinkled with a few who may have seen Lancasters in action, most looked more like their grandchildren or great-grandchildren.

That’s an encouraging sign that sacrifice is still being remembered, as are the reports that attendance at public Remembrance Day ceremonies has if anything increased in recent years.

Unfortunately, that’s partly because Canada is again at war in Afghanistan. Every few days or weeks when logging on to a Canadian news website, you see another photo of a soldier and you know what it means. A few hours ago, someone answered the door to see an officer and a chaplain, and immediately knew why they were there.

The faces in those photos usually look so young, especially to those of us with children that age, and it’s such a shock when you see soldiers in person, which you often do in airports. These are the ones we send to war – those who should have the longest future in front of them?

It was just 21 years between the two world wars – equivalent to the period since 1989, which doesn’t seem so long ago. Some servicemen fought in two world wars. Most of us who are children of Second WW veterans were in our 50s before it was time to go to Afghanistan, and by then we were too old. We are the luckiest generation in history. Let’s ensure that the sacrifices of our parents – and now our children – are not forgotten.

THE 24-HOUR RULE

It’s a rule that we use – or should use – when reacting to a slight from friends or family. Wait 24 hours, and then respond. By then you’ll have cooled down, and can avoid that instant reaction that may prompt you to say things you’ll regret later.

It’s a rule that farm organizations might consider when reacting to slights – or perceived slights – to their business. Last week’s instant reaction by the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency was a classic example.

On Tuesday, national media reported on a review in the Canadian Journal of Cardiologywhich warned of the danger of dietary cholesterol for those at risk of a heart attack or stroke.

Repeat, “for those at risk of a heart attack or stroke,” which isn’t necessarily the whole population.

To make their point that egg yolks (not whites) are a large source of cholesterol, the three authors noted that a single yolk contains 215 to 275 milligrams of cholesterol (the recommended daily amount for persons at risk of cardiovascular disease is 200 mg).

By contrast, there is 150 mg in a KFC “Double Down,” the controversial new fast-food item which consists of bacon and cheese sandwiched between two deep-fried chicken breasts.

Within hours of the report appearing in the media, CEMA fired off a release slamming the “irresponsible, inaccurate” report. “(C)omments made by these same researchers that a popular high-fat, high-calorie sandwich is more nutritious than eggs are quite simply irresponsible.”

The researchers said no such thing.

As for inaccuracies claimed by CEMA, the only one is apparently that it says there are only 195 mg in an egg yolk, compared to the 215-275 mg cited by researchers. However, an Internet search of various other sources seems to confirm the higher number.

It’s obvious what happened. When the story appeared, CEMA’s phone started ringing with calls from outraged producers saying “You have to do something.” So to keep them happy, it did, but if anything, the reaction was counterproductive to those who really matter – the media and consumers.

A better response would have been to note that the recommendation was specific to those at risk of heart attack or stroke and that if consumers had concerns, they should contact their doctors.

Even better would have been for the egg producers to contact the chicken producers, and suggest they should issue a release criticizing KFC for taking perfectly healthy chicken breasts and turning them into a calorie, fat and salt bomb. The more people who eat junk like that, the more who will be at risk of heart attack and stroke – and able to eat fewer eggs.

Next time, read the article carefully, wait 24 hours, and issue a response directed at consumers, not farmers. john.morriss@fbcpublishing.com

———

JOHN MORRISS

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

The post The Luckiest Generation appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

You don’t often sit down to a plate of scones nowadays. They’re a simple treat from simpler days when more of us baked from scratch.

I made scones last week using a favourite recipe – see below – and started to wonder about the origin of the word. One theory is that the Scottish word came from the German schonbrot or “fine bread.” A quick Internet search turned up The Kitchen Project website which says the word scone may be derived from the Stone of Destiny, where Scottish kings were once crowned.

Anyone who loves scones, though, knows the last thing you’d compare them to is a stone. Scones are light and bread-like. Mostly they’re made with flour nowadays although The Kitchen Project notes that original scones would have been made with oats, griddle-baked and served in wedges.

You can find loads of great recipes online at www.kitchenproject.comincluding recipes for many different types of scones. Enjoy!

OLD-FASHIONED POTATO SCONES

This is a recipe given to me by my sister and is delicious served with a thick, hot soup.

1 c. flour

4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. granulated sugar

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

(optional)

2 tbsp. butter

1/2 c. cold mashed

potatoes

1/2 c. milk

Sift first five ingredients. Cut in butter, stir in potatoes. Add milk and mix lightly to make a soft dough. Knead on a lightly floured surface. Pat to 1/2 inch thickness and cut with a cutter. Bake scones at 325F for about 12 to 15 minutes or until just golden brown. Turn once. Serve hot as biscuits or spread with honey or jam. Do you have favourite recipes your family especially enjoys in late autumn or early winter? Can we help you find a specific recipe? We love hearing from you each week!

PUMPKIN SCONES

Debbie Grenkow of St. Norbert sent us this terrific recipe for a pumpkin scone this fall.

2 c. flour

7 tbsp. sugar

1 tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/8 tsp. cloves

6 tbsp. cold butter

Cut butter with a pastry cutter into above ingredients or process in a food processor until it resembles cornmeal. Set aside.

1/2 c. pumpkin purée

3 tbsp. half-and-half cream

1 large egg

MAPLE WALNUT SCONES

One of my most-used cookbooks is Simply in Season, published by Mennonite Central Committee in 2005. You’ll find this scone recipe in it. It’s easy to make and so delicious it’s sure to become one of your favourite recipes.

3-1/2 c. flour

1 c. walnuts or other

nuts (finely chopped)

4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

Combine thoroughly.

2/3 c. butter (chilled)

Cut in until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

1 c. milk

1/2 c. maple syrup

Stir in and work into soft dough; knead 5 to 6 times. Roll out to 1/2-inch thick round. Cut into 10 to 12 wedges. Place on a greased baking sheet. Bake in a preheated oven at 425F until golden (15 to 18 minutes). Serve immediately.

Manitoba Co-operator Recipe Swap

Box 1794, Carman, Man. R0G 0J0

or e-mail

lorraine@fbcpublishing.com

Whisk together and fold into dry ingredients. Form into ball. On lightly floured surface shape into a 9” x 3” x 1”-thick rectangle. Cut into three equal squares. Cut each square diagonally to make six triangles. Bake at 400F for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool.

To make icing:

1 c. icing sugar

Pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg

and ginger (optional)

Milk to make nice consistency (about 2 tbsp.)

Use brush to paint icing over the scone.

GINGER SCONES

2 c. all-purpose flour

1/4 c. granulated

white sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 c. unsalted butter,

cold and cut into pieces

1/2 c. crystallized

ginger, chopped into

small pieces

Zest of 1 large lemon

2/3 c. buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400F. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blend until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add chopped crystallized ginger and lemon zest then stir in just enough buttermilk to form a soft dough. Knead lightly and roll out to a 1/2-inch thick round. You can cut circles or wedges as you prefer. Bake about 18 to 20 minutes until golden brown.

The post Send Recipes Or Recipe Requests To: – for Nov. 26, 2009 appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“That’s what our great-grandfathers built

everything out of here on the Prairies – poplar.”

– JAKE SIEMENS

Too many trees is a nice problem to have.

The most common solution, it seems, is to hire a bulldozer and push unwanted bush into big piles and burn them.

While it may be expedient, it is wasteful, since even the crooked ones can be bucked up, split and sold for firewood.

The biggest, straightest ones can be sawn into rough lumber for keeping the woodpile nice and dry, or sold to the neighbours for windbreak boards, building livestock pens and shelters, a henhouse, or even a big timber-frame barn for truly ambitious types.

But to do that, you need a sawmill.

A quick Internet search will turn up dozens of bandsaw mill manufacturers all over North America with dealerships in Ontario and Alberta offering machines of any size to fit any budget.

If you want to buy local, the only outfit in Manitoba is Little “Dust” Sawmills in Selkirk.

Owned and operated by Jake Siemens and his family for almost 30 years now, Little “Dust” has been welding square tubing into saw frames and tracks for buyers all over the continent. Lately he has contracted out the actual manufacturing, and generally has two sawmills in the shop at various stages of being built at any given time, depending on orders.

DOLLAR BLUES

“The last couple of years have been a bit tough, because when the American dollar goes down, we don’t sell anything to the States,” he said. “And the price of steel has been choking us pretty bad.”

Unlike circular sawmills, or the low-budget chainsaw-mounted option, bandsaw mills zip through the logs with only a one-eighth inch kerf with very little waste – hence the name Little “Dust,” said Siemens, who also has a hand in a number of family businesses, including trucking, made-to-order small log cabins and a truck-mounted crane that fits into a regular pickup receiver hitch.

With the other types of mills, especially chainsaw units, squaring up a log into a cant on four sides means each of those three-eighths inch or larger passes can add up, turning what would have been a 6×6 into a 5×5 or smaller.

If boards are the desired product, then even more of the log gets turned into sawdust with every slice.

And when cutting hardwoods like ash or oak, the chainsaw mills go from sharp to dull pretty fast. In high-value woods, of course, the waste is all the more painful.

Siemens used to make a half-size mill for the hobby market, but found that he couldn’t square his cost of production with buyer sticker shock.

ONE SIZE

Now he has settled on just one size, capable of sawing a 30-inch-diameter log up to 21 feet in length, for $16,900, complete with road-ready tail lights on a trailer frame.

Unlike circular sawmills, which require a massive engine to power the spinning blade, a bandsaw is easier, cheaper and much safer to operate. With less torque involved, there is no danger of kickback from the blade binding up in the log – a problem that led to countless injuries in the olden days of sawmilling.

“You can teach somebody how to use it in a matter of minutes,” said Siemens. “It’s a one-man operation, but with two people it works really swift.”

He said that about one-third of his customers are farmers and ranchers, while remote northern First Nations reserves account for another third, with the rest bought by retirees who wish to keep busy with a cash-generating sideline that doesn’t require a regular time commitment.

“They are just amazed. Lots of them call me up and say, ‘We should have done this years ago,’” said Siemens.

“One guy wouldn’t tell me how much money he was making, but he said it was way more than both his pensions put together. He said, ‘If I want to work, I

work. If I don’t feel like working, I don’t.’”

Many people assume that only spruce and pine are worth cutting for lumber, but Siemens said that many people who try poplar find that they prefer it to the more commonly used softwoods. It takes a nail or screw easily when still green, and has the advantages of great strength, no sap and less tendency to splinter.

“That’s what our great-grandfathers built everything out of here on the Prairies – poplar.”

EXCELLENT QUALITY

Chris Reynolds, a MAFRI business development specialist and woodlot forester based in Gladstone, said poplar lumber can be of excellent quality if it is handled properly.

“A lot of people don’t like to use it because they don’t understand how it needs to be dried or how to use it properly,” he said, adding that the main reason finding top-quality poplar saw logs can be difficult is because forests in Manitoba haven’t been managed properly for decades and are in decline.

“A lot of the older poplars that would have been good 20 years ago are rotting. But when you can find them, they make beautiful lumber.”

Also, because like all deciduous tree species it is classified as a hardwood, it doesn’t need a costly lumber grader’s stamp, which is a common building code requirement for wood used in construction projects.

“Hardwood lumber has no grade requirement, and poplar is included,” he said. “It’s only spruce, pine and fir that have to be graded.”

daniel.winters@fbcpublishing.com

The post Selkirk’s Little “Dust” Sawmills Fills Niche For Do-It-Yourself Builders appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

That was not difficult. A visit to the website of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission www.cwgc.orgallows a search for every known lost Canadian, and provides the location of their grave if they have one. Thousands do not, especially those lost in the horrors of Vimy, the Somme, Passchendaele, Beaumont Hamel and other battles in the First World War. Those battlefields have been returned to farmers, but they continue with the annual “Iron Harvest” of unexploded munitions when cultivating each spring. Some are still injured and killed when unearthing the millions of shells and bombs which remain under their fields.

My uncle is in a Second World War cemetery in Adegem in the Flanders region of northern Belgium. We stayed in Ghent, a nearby city with lovely buildings along the canal system which northern Belgium shares with Holland. After some directions from our host at our bed and breakfast, we rented bicycles and rode to Adegem on the picture-postcard tree-lined paths which run along the canals. After a couple of hours we reached the town, but before visiting the cemetery, stopped at another location which had come up in an Internet search of Adegem.

It turns out that the cemetery is not the little town’s only recognition of Canada. It also has a private Canadian war museum. We had read about it on the website, and expected perhaps a small collection to honour the Canadians who liberated that part of Belgium during the Battle of the Scheldt in 1944.

We were hardly prepared for what we found – a large building in beautiful surroundings, with a restaurant able to seat dozens of visitors. The museum displays are impressive, but more remarkable is the story which led to its creation.

The museum is owned and run by Gilbert van Landschoot, who is carrying out the wish of his father Maurice, who died in 1987. After a severe heart attack, and knowing he was dying, Maurice for the first time told his family about his role in the Resistance. Adegem was occupied by the Germans, and Maurice pretended to be a sympathizer, even gaining access to the airbase so that he could take a shortcut when moving his cattle. In fact he was opening fuel cocks to drain fuel from fighters so they would crash shortly after takeoff, and radioing information to the Allies.

Maurice was discovered as their advance began, and disappeared into the Underground, crediting the Canadians with saving his life. There were 6,000 casualties in the Battle of the Scheldt, and Maurice’s dying wish was that his family do something to commemorate those Canadians, as well as the Poles who fought with them.

Gilbert has done that with great enthusiasm, and the museum features extensive displays of wartime artifacts from both Canadian and German forces, along with video displays using footage shot by Canadians during the battle. It was deeply touching to see the displays and to hear Gilbert’s passion for thanking Canada. But the visit also provided some chilling reminders of the consequences of war. Gilbert described Adegem as a “black village” – half the residents were Nazi sympathizers, and one could sense some old resentments remained. Perhaps that’s why Maurice chose not to fan old flames by not speaking of his experience earlier.

Then there are the stories you don’t expect. Each of the dozens of mannequins dressed in a Canadian uniform had a different face. Gilbert modelled each one himself, based on a photograph of a Canadian soldier.

It turns out that photographs were not hard to find. There were two nicknames for the Canadians. One was “the water rats,” which came from their one-month slog through the mud of the flooded peninsula. The second nickname was “the lover boys.” Some of the Allied sympathizers in the village greeted their liberators with extra enthusiasm, and after the war, more than 140 children in the village were born to Canadian fathers. I asked whether any Canadians visiting the museum had recognized their father’s face on one of the mannequins. Gilbert said yes, they had.

We had lunch and rode to the cemetery, where we found preparations were being made for an annual commemoration service to be held the following day, attended by the King of Belgium. We also learned that despite the apparent good condition of the cemetery, work had begun on a five-year levelling and renovation program. When you hear the words of the poem on November 11 this year, you can be assured that in Flanders fields, Canadians have not been forgotten. johnmorriss@fbcpublishing.com

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