In a one-hour presentation at the Western Canada Conference on Soil Health and Grazing in Edmonton, Alta. on December 12, he passed some of that knowledge on to conference attendees.

“If you own soil, we have to be able to look at what we’re doing and be able to see the changes. The power of observation is many times much greater than the data that goes with that observation,” Bieber said at the start of his presentation.

Bieber is a retired farmer from South Dakota, U.S. He travels the world, talking and teaching about soil health. Though his son has now taken over their operation, known as Soil Care, Bieber is still passionate about farming and soil.

When he started, though, it wasn’t to fix his soil – it was to cut costs and increase profits. The benefits to his soil came along with that.

To him, the most important part of soil health is letting the biology in the soil do what comes naturally.

“I’m just basically asking my soil biology, ‘do your job,’” Bieber said.

He said he saw the most success on their operation by doing a combination of long-term no-till and cover cropping. It’s important to keep the soil covered, to protect the biology, he said. If the soil is exposed, then the  soil’s biology will be disturbed by things like rain and chemicals.

“Look at tillage as being a disturbance, and it is,” Biever said. “That’s a physical disturbance. But we also have our biological disturbances, the herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, pesticides, they’re biological disturbances that cause the biology to not perform in balances.”

Bieber also used a version of adaptive rotational grazing, with both pastureland and on their cover crops. He said cows help with soil health because they move organic matter around with their grazing.

“These are our biological distributors because they’re taking what’s out on that native range land, and they’re bringing it out, and they’re spreading it very uniformly throughout our field,” he said. “That’s all we need. We don’t need to have that full coverage of manure out there, as long as we have it like that.”

Bieber said in addition to the cattle, the diversity of the plants grown has to support what the livestock bring to the land. He says it is important to listen to what your land is telling you and then to respond.

“We keep getting told, ‘Do it here, do it there. This is how to do it.’ But we never get the answers of why, and your soils will tell you the why.”

The Western Canada Conference on Grazing and Soil Health ended Thursday afternoon after three days and over 15 speakers. Topics ranged from cover crops and intercrops, grazing methods, types of forages to use, microbes and microbiomes and more.

The post South Dakota farmer focuses on soil biology appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Fall control on pasture might be one of the most effective tools in stopping growth of the weed, said one industry expert.

“If you hit them with a herbicide in the fall right after a hard frost, it will start sending all of its resources down to that big, massive root zone and it will send that herbicide down with it,” said Mark Versluys, specialties business leader with Corteva Agriscience.

“It will give you some excellent control going into the following year.”

Canada thistle is a pain, sometimes literally, and has been known to suck forage capacity from a pasture.

Those thistle roots are no joke when it comes to stealing precious moisture and nutrients from palatable pasture grasses, making it harder for those desired species to compete.

It’s no surprise that Canada thistle has been named by livestock producers as the worst pasture weed on the Prairies. The roots can grow six to 18 feet deep and 20 feet laterally. One plant can yield up to 5,000 seeds, which can germinate after only 10 days and spread to other points in the pasture.

According to a resource from the Beef Cattle Research Council in 2008, the roots of a thistle plant often spread one to two metres farther each season, although that number has been known to jump to six metres.

The same BCRC materials note that “root fragments as small as half a [centimetre] long can produce viable plants of this weed, making it very hard to control with cultivation.”

In Alberta, it is estimated that Canada thistle steals forage yield at a rate of two to one. Every pound of thistle biomass equates to two pounds less forage in that pasture, according to the BCRC.

Manitoba Agriculture’s profile of the weed says the thistle’s ability to outcompete for light, nutrients and water means that “Canada thistle can cause greater crop losses than any other broadleaf weed in Western Canada.”

Established plants can send new shoots every five to 15 cm, the province noted, and “a typical infestation produces 13-18 shoots per square metre.”

Corteva recommends an integrated pasture-management system including herbicides, grazing and fertilization to tackle Canada thistle and other weeds.

The company has three herbicides for Canada thistle. They include Grazon XC (Group 4 with picloram and 2, 4-D as active ingredients), Reclaim II (Groups 2 and 4, active ingredient aminopyralid) and Restore II (Group 4, aminopyralid and 2, 4-D).

Producers can consult the company or other agronomists for advice on which of these and other products is most suitable.

Multi-directional attack

Manitoba Agriculture warns farmers that “Canada thistle requires a multi-year, integrated control strategy,” which could include patch mowing, tillage (more applicable to annual crops) and herbicide.

Livestock producers tempted to pull out the iron to control a heavy infestation should know that fall tillage has mixed results. The province estimates that late fall tillage often reduces shoots by 20 per cent and delays future emergence, but can also aggravate a thistle problem.

“Small fragments often survive adverse conditions,” leading to a new wave of thistle.

“Because Canada thistle has a massive capacity to produce roots and shoots eventually growing up as new plants, killing the top-growth is like giving thistle a haircut. The only way to control the entire root system is to use a herbicide that translocates deeply into the roots,” Manitoba Agriculture says.

Right timing

Timing is everything when it comes to the year’s first herbicide application on Canada thistle, said Versluys, and the best window may have already passed.

“Really, what you want to do is hit that plant before it buds or pre-buds,” he said. “You can let it grow out a little bit to about 10 per cent growth, but you are pushing the envelope there.”

Agronomists can help figure out the best time for application. Versluys encouraged producers to familiarize themselves with the target weed spectrum.

“We have different solutions, we have three fantastic products. But there’s some overlap in the weed spectrum for each of them and there’s a lot of differences as well.

“So make sure you know what you’re going after and make sure that the timing on the weeds you’re going after is correct for when you’re going in to spray it.”

Graze before prickles emerge

Herbicides are just the first step in an integrated pasture management system, said Versluys.

“Herbicide solutions are not silver bullets. They’re not going to do everything that you need to do but they are a very important part and a first step of an integrated pasture-management program.”

The next step occurs in spring. Although not a good solution for major thistle infestations, livestock in rotational grazing systems can work on bud-stage Canada thistle.

“It’s a huge part, not just for Canada thistle but for all weeds to keep them in line,” said Versluys. “When you get animals into a pasture when the Canada thistle is quite small, they will eat the buds on them because they’re still somewhat tender.

“Of course, when they get bigger, that’s a different story altogether.”

Another effective tool is crop competition on forage and pasture.

Planting competitive grasses should come after herbicide applications, said Versluys.

“That’s why I say your first step should be a herbicide application to get rid of those weeds… so that when you’re spending the money on your fertilizer for the crop to extend those pastures, you’re just feeding the crop and not the weeds.”

The post For cattle producers, the time to attack Canada thistle is now appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“I think these changes make the system a lot more workable,” said Manitoba Beef Producers general manager Carson Callum. “The changes that happened in 2019 were against the input that we provided to the province. I think it’s a positive step forward for the Crown lands file.”

Why it matters: The Agricultural Crown Lands system has been embroiled in controversy since 2019, when new regulations sparked outrage among forage leaseholders.

Manitoba’s agricultural Crown lands are parcels of land vested to Manitoba that the government leases to producers for agricultural use, including grazing, haying or annual cropping. The vast majority of these lands are used by cattle operations.

The province announced the latest changes to Crown land regulations July 31. They mirror recommendations released two months ago and follow a 45-day public comment period that included aboriginal groups, producer groups and leaseholders.

“The Agricultural Crown Lands Program is meant to strengthen the livestock industry, enhance productivity and encourage growth,” said Manitoba Agriculture Minister Derek Johnson. “At the same time, the ACL program needs to work for leaseholders and Indigenous peoples who use these lands for traditional purposes and to exercise treaty rights.”

Years of changes

The amendments appear to address many objections leaseholders have levied against the system.

The province began to overhaul the ACL program in late 2017, when then-agriculture minister Ralph Eichler promised changes to make the process more transparent. The old points system, which weighted lease allocations according to things like herd size, income and proximity, had come under fire by the industry for its lack of transparency.

Since then, the issue has been fraught with challenges. A legislative change set up ACL allocation as an auction-based system. In fall 2019, that was accompanied by sweeping regulatory changes. Among them, rent was set at market-based rates, lease terms were set at 15 years, and the ability to transfer a lease (unit transfer) was eliminated.

There were immediate objections from leaseholders.

The main irritants were the much higher rental rates (several times higher within the span of two years), shortened lease length (a right of renewal was later added to ensure continuity for existing leases), lack of valuation for land improvements, and the elimination of the unit transfer, so that leaseholders could no longer transfer the lease to new owners when they sold their farms.

The latter issue later generated even more complaints, after an initial promise of a one-time transitional transfer, meant as a sort of grandfather clause for farmers on their way out of the industry, fell to the wayside.

Leaseholders said they were considering legal action.

The newest ACL Leases and Permits Regulation enables 15-year leaseholders to transfer the remaining years of their leases to an eligible third party and allows legacy leaseholders to transfer their leased land to a third party by nominating the next leaseholder.

It also extends lease terms to a maximum of 20 years, up from 15, if producers invest in forage productivity improvements.

The amendments also make certain concessions to Indigenous groups. In addition to the bands that are already eligible, non-profit Indigenous organizations will now be eligible to hold forage leases. Leases are barred from being transferred to a third party if the Crown lands are selected under Treaty Land Entitlement and impact Indigenous treaty rights.

In terms of land improvements made under their tenure, outgoing leaseholders will now choose between a value set out in the appraisal report or specify a lesser value.

The province said it will formalize the process for assessing land productivity used to determine rent. The province argues this will “create an incentive to manage the land and invest in its productivity.”

“It’s good to see that they’re starting to go back and make tweaks that are beneficial, understanding that they need to still meet the requirements under the Treaty Land Entitlement and all the Indigenous rights that are really important here in the province,” said Callum.

Election year

The Manitoba NDP party characterized the changes as election opportunism.

“For years, the PCs have made terrible changes to Crown lands, which included eliminating unit transfers,” NDP leader Wab Kinew said in an emailed statement. “Now, during an election year, the PCs are trying to walk back their changes to Crown lands after four years of ignoring producers’ concerns.”

Johnson rejected Kinew’s accusation, saying changes represent the evolution of a particularly tricky file.

“A lot of work has been done by the departments over the past year and a bit, and it’s coming to fruition. They can put their rhetoric forward, but my focus is on listening to producers and making changes that will better agriculture and Manitoba,” Johnson said.

Callum said the new regulations are an important step, and Manitoba Beef Producers will continue to hold the province accountable on the Crown lands file.   

“MBP will continue to work with governments to ensure that tweaks can be made to ensure that the ACL program works for producers across the landscape and is predictable and affordable,” he said.

“We believe the regulations are workable for the producer and we look forward to seeing some policy direction now that these regulations have been amended.”

The post Crown land changes approved appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Precipitation was variable across agro–Manitoba from May 8 to 14 with values ranging from 0 to 48.9 mm. Mid-week rains brought the highest observed precipitation to the Northwest and Southwest regions.

Climate normals for total accumulated precipitation from May 1 to May 14 range from 13.1 to 29.2 mm and are based on 30-year historical data. Areas of the Northwest near Drifting River, and the Southwest along the U.S. border have accumulated more than 100 per cent normal precipitation. The majority of the central and eastern regions have received less than 70 per cent normal precipitation.

Total Accumulation of Growing Degree Days shows the accumulated growing degree days (GDD) for the period of May 1 – May 14. Much of agro-Manitoba has accumulated more than 100 GDD. Central and Eastern regions have accumulated the most GDD. Much of the province has accumulated more than 125 per cent of normal GDD.

Overall, producers were able to make significant progress over the last week with field work and seeding. Warm soil temperatures and adequate soil moisture mean crops will be emerging rapidly in the coming days and weeks.

Provincial seeding progress sits at about 25 per cent completion, behind the 5-year average of 63 per cent for Week 20 (Figure 1 at top). All regions of the province have started seeding. Crop reporting areas range from 24 to 30 per cent complete for all crops.

To find interactive soil temperature/moisture and air temperature information see Agri-Maps Current Weather viewer.

Overview 

Seeding progress across the province is moving at a rapid pace with the recent warm weather. Producers are able to seed most fields, unlike the previous week where producers were more selective on which field to plant due to wet soil conditions. The weather forecast is looking favorable for continued seeding progress over the next week. Cereal plantings are expected to wrap up towards the end of the week and soybean and canola seeding is expected to increase. Corn planting is at 15 per cent complete and is expected to increase as the week progresses. 

Cereals 

Winter cereal crops are tillering and are in good to excellent condition with very little winterkill. Fertilizer applications were completed except for fields or field areas where access was still an issue. 

Producers made rapid progress on spring cereals over the last week with some already finished seeding. Some early seeded spring wheat is emerging with seed rows becoming more apparent every day. Most fields emerging in 7-10 days.

Corn planting has begun in the Red River Valley, approximately 15 per cent of intended corn acres are in the ground.

Oilseeds

Very few canola acres have been planted to date, as producers concentrate on longer-season crops, or those more sensitive to seeding date – peas, wheat, and corn.

Canola planting across the province sits at approximately 8 per cent complete. This will change over the next week as growers finish up planting cereals.

Sunflower planting has begun and is currently sitting at 15 per cent complete.

Canola acres are expected to be down slightly from previous years, with Statistics Canada estimating 3.25 million acres.

Pulses

Field pea planting is at 64 per cent complete across the province. The south west and northwest region are the furthest advanced sitting at 80 per cent complete.

Good emergence has been noted on fields planted during the first week of May.

Soybean planting has started with 9 per cent of the projected acres planted.

Soybean acres are expected to increase with Statistics Canada projected acres to be 1.5 million acres.

No dry edible beans have been planted to date.

Forages & Livestock 

Forages 

Top-dress fertilizer applications have been made on some hay fields.

Fertilization of hay fields, particularly those receiving hog manure, in parts of the region has begun.

Pastures are approximately one week away from supporting grazing livestock. Moisture conditions are adequate across the region, dugouts are full, and the grass/alfalfa is growing nicely.

Hay and pasture is growing well, taking advantage of warmer weather and spring moisture.

Livestock

Cattle remain in their winter feeding areas, though some are beginning the move to pasture or have opened smaller paddocks adjacent to corrals; allowing animals access to dryer conditions and more space. Hay supplies are adequate with some producers expecting to have carry-over for next year. Hay is available in the area for purchase if a producer finds they are running short. Some farms are supplementing cattle with grain to increase the energy content of their diet.

Caution not to turn cattle out too early so it does not set forages back. Feeding cattle on a sacrifice pasture paddock gets them out of the yards and onto cleaner ground without impacting the entire system.

Herds require supplementation on grazing sites unless sufficient stockpiled forage is present.

Availability of livestock water is rated as adequate.

Nearly all creeks, streams, dugouts, and sloughs have refilled to capacity.

Regional Comments

Southwest

Seeding progressed rapidly during last week, with most producers seeding cereals. Spring wheat is 45 per cent complete, with barley at 30per cent, and oats at 20 per cent complete. Many producers are waiting until they finish cereals before starting on canola. Currently canola seeding progress is in the 5-10 per cent range. In addition, they are waiting for low spots to dry out; this recent rain has pushed intentions back a few days in some areas. Field pea seeding is at 75-80 per cent complete. Peas seeded at the beginning of May are starting to emerge. Soybean seeding also started in some southern areas, with approximately 10 per cent seeding complete. Seeding of grain corn has also started.

Northwest

Warm and windy week across the region with the exception of a storm that rolled through parts of the region mid- week. Dauphin and Ste. Rose area received approximately 30 mm of rain with Drifting River station receiving 48 mm in a short period. Hail also occurred in Ste. Rose, Dauphin and Gilbert Plains. Planting in these areas were slowed while conditions dried up. Areas that did not receive precipitation from the storm are starting to see dry conditions in the topsoil. Spring wheat seeding progress is well underway across the region. Approximately 90 per cent complete in Roblin area; 65 per cent complete in Swan Valley and Dauphin; 50 per cent complete in The Pas. Earliest seeded spring wheat in Roblin and Swan Valley is emerged. Overall good winter wheat survival. Canola seeding was started across the entire region over the weekend and is approximately 10 per cent complete. Field peas are 80 per cent complete across the region. Soybean seeding is underway in the Dauphin region.

Central 

Most farms in the central region have started field operations including soil testing, dry fertilizer spreading, spraying pre-seed herbicides/dribble banding fertilizer, anhydrous ammonia applications, and harrowing/cultivating. For the most part seeding is continuing at a fast and steady pace. Carman / Roland areas are further advanced in seeding than regions on the escarpment and heavier soils around Altona and along the Red River. Due to recent rains, many producers in these areas have yet to start seeding. Over the coming week most are hoping to make a start and if the weather remains favorable, some are even expecting to be finished planting in the coming days. 

The first spring cereals have emerged and are looking healthy. Emergence on spring wheat is 7 to 10 days. Flea beetles have appeared and are consuming volunteer canola. Weeds are quickly appearing in fields including kochia, volunteer canola and wheat, other brassicas, fleabane, redroot pigweed, millet, lambs quarters, thistles and dandelions. 

Eastern 

Rain stayed away from the region after Wednesday and air temperatures, both daytime highs and nighttime lows, stayed above normal for the rest of the reporting period. This allowed producers to have a productive week in terms of field work and seeding. Soil temperatures moved into an acceptable range for all crop types during the past week allowing producers the flexibility to plant various crop types if field access was an issue on some of their land. 

Winter cereals are tillering and in good to excellent condition with very little winterkill. Fertilizer applications were complete except for fields or field areas where access was still an issue. Fertilizer application will be completed this week if the weather holds.

Approximately 50 per cent of spring wheat and barley acres along with 30 per cent of oat acres were seeded. Producers made rapid progress over the last week with some already having completed their spring cereals. Some early seeded spring wheat is emerging. 

Corn planting progressed quickly over the last week with approximately 35 per cent of acres now seeded. Some growers have completed their corn and moved on to other crops.Approximately 25 per cent of sunflower acres have been planted, while 10 per cent of canola and soybean acres are complete. 

Interlake 

Seeding is well underway in the Interlake region. Areas in the south are further along than in the Arborg region. Seeding progress has been slowed in the Arborg region due to passing showers but with the recent warm weather should pick up soon. Most growers have started with field peas and cereals with seeding of the majority of the cereals completed by the end of this week. Soybean planting has started, however the majority of the acres will be planted towards the end of this week and into next. Seeding of canola has also started with approximately 10 per cent planted.

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Standing in one of several arenas repurposed for Brandon’s Royal Manitoba Winter Fair this March, Jessica Riach was obviously getting used to repeating some version of this statement. On her arm perched Bindi, a four-year-old fully grown burrowing owl, standing shorter than a hardcover book.

The pair were there as ambassadors for the Manitoba Burrowing Owl Recovery Program, an organization dedicated to replenishing the species in the far corner of southwestern Manitoba.

Why it matters: Burrowing owls have become a rare sight in Manitoba as grasslands and other native habitat acres diminish.

Every year, the program releases a handful of breeding pairs, in the hope that their young will add numbers to the critically diminished species.

It has worked with more than 60 landowners in the region over the course of a decade. More than 350 artificial nests have been built, 72 pairs released (64 of which built nests) and 166 owlets fledged.

The species is listed as endangered, both nationally and under Manitoba’s Endangered Species and Ecosystems Act. According to the Manitoba Conservation Data Centre, one of a network of Canadian and U.S. databanks that track wildlife numbers, the breeding population of burrowing owls ranks as “critically imperiled” provincially, the rarest classification in the system.

That ranking is matched by “imperiled” or “critically imperiled” status for the birds on a national scale.

The sliver of Manitoba now considered burrowing owl habitat is a remnant of a much larger range. According to Manitoba Wildlife Branch materials, the small ground owls could historically be found from southern Manitoba to the Interlake and Parkland north to Dauphin, and as far east as Winnipeg.

In the early to mid-1900s, it was estimated that Manitoba had more than 100 breeding pairs each spring. Starting in the early ’80s, those numbers sharply declined. By the late 2000s, conservation experts estimated the number of breeding pairs in single digits.

It was around this point that the recovery program entered the scene.

The reasons behind the owls’ population decline are many, according to program data. Loss of habitat is a big one. Then there are incidents with vehicles, predation or losses during migration. Little is known about migration, even though every released owl is banded for identification.

Owls might be killed by pesticides, since their favoured prey includes insects and rodents, or there might not be enough burrows, since the species often adopts old ground squirrel or badger dens rather than digging from scratch. Fewer rodents due to human interference means fewer ready-made homes for owls.

The beef connection

The recovery program recently joined forces with Manitoba Beef Producers, which helps fund operations. The monetary tie between the two organizations makes sense. Beef producers represent a target land base for owl recovery efforts.

“[The owls] require open-grazed pastureland as their habitat and beef producers already kind of have that,” Riach said.

The partnership also gives the program greater access to the private landowners.

For beef producers, grassland conservation is both good business and good public relations.

The organization has long partnered with programs like Species at Risk Partnerships on Agricultural Lands, which is run through Environment and Climate Change Canada. Bird species are featured heavily in that program, which offers incentives for farmers to adopt management practices to enhance grassland habitat.

The producers’ group is actively promoting the burrowing owl program among southwestern beef farmers.

“It’s such a good way to show the benefits of beef on the landscape to the people who need to see it,” said Melissa Atchison, MBP’s research and extension specialist.

“We understand, as producers, the good things that we’re doing in terms of population ecology and wildlife habitat maintenance, but when it comes straight from the conservation group, it really has a lot more power in the eyes and ears of the public.”

Another bite at the apple

Manitoba’s burrowing owl recovery program marked the first reintroduction effort since the mid-‘90s. A previous program had released captive-born owls for nine years, starting in 1987, but was eventually retired after few owls returned.

Unlike other programs in Canada, breeding pairs have already “successfully nested and fledged young” by the time they hit the wild.

“By releasing only successful breeding pairs, we hope to increase nest-site philopatry, which is the tendency of an adult to return to same area to breed where they did the year previous,” the program’s website states.

It also “holds back” some of the young, to reduce competition for their siblings that remain wild. Those owls are reintroduced in the following year’s breeding pairs.

Attempts are made to keep the breeding pair together by only releasing them once a nest has three eggs.

All nests are carefully monitored and the team supplements diet for about two weeks after eggs hatch, which is when young start to explore outside the nest.

The goal is to restore Manitoba’s burrowing owl population to healthy, self-sustaining numbers of 23-25 breeding pairs.

On the way, they’re doing a lot of research. The program has been collecting data on the relationship between clutch size and productivity.

Outreach is another aspect. In addition to Riach’s appearance at the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair, the program offers school and community visits to educate the public on the burrowing owl and grassland conservation.

It also makes special effort to talk with potential landowner partners. These one-on-one meetings can include a land survey (including any past burrowing owl activity) and information on setting the species up for success on that land.

Slow gains

Manitoba’s dry spell, culminating in 2021, was bad news for farmers, as were grasshoppers that plagued many fields. But the burrowing owls were well-fed and right at home. In recent years the program has seen an increase in wild burrowing owls that return to Manitoba.

“Last year, we actually had three wild owls show up on our release sites, which we’ve never had before,” Riach said. “So that is amazing.”

One of those wild birds matched with a female from the release program, and seven eggs were hatched. The three were not banded, and so they did not come from any of releases.

However, the program has not seen many of their released birds return.

“It’s really hard to say, once they leave the release site, what happens between here and wherever they go,” Riach said. “They do migrate down to the Gulf of Mexico area. It’s a really long migration. Between here and there, anything could happen. We don’t really know why they don’t come back to the same release site.”

Those birds could easily be in Manitoba, she noted, just not on the specific pasture that the program is watching.

That echoes many of the problems from the 1987-1996 program. It saw 181 nests and, while most did have young, only four per cent of those owlets were seen again in a following year and only 31 per cent of the introduced adults came back.

It was thought that losses may have occurred during migration or at the birds’ overwintering site.

Programs in Canada and the U.S. are trying to track the owls during migration, although finding GPS technology compatible with such small birds and such a long journey has been a challenge.

As long as the birds are somewhere, however, the program still counts it as a win, considering their national endangered status and the spillover benefit to other species that rely on grasslands.

“We could still be increasing the population. They just might be not necessarily coming back to this area,” Riach said.

The post Bringing back the burrowing owl appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Those results illustrate concerns that they and other members of the Manitoba Crown Land Leaseholders Association have had for years.

With few exceptions, almost all available parcels in the area around Ste. Rose du Lac and Eddystone went to large ranches for prices that many small long-time ranchers and new producers couldn’t manage.

Sorenson was interested in one parcel. He was willing to put a “pretty serious” $25,000 bid down. Against bidders with deeper pockets, he found himself out of luck.

“I thought it was crazy,” he said. “Some pieces brought more than they were worth.”

Why it matters: More than four years ago, leaseholders said the new auction allocation system would lock smaller, newer farms out of Crown lands. Now they say that’s exactly what’s happening.

In late 2019, the province rolled out new regulations for forage Crown land. As well as lowering lease lengths to 15 years from 50, it codified an auction-based system for allocating leases. They were previously allocated under a points-based system, which weighted applications by herd size, age, non-farm income and first-time applicants.

The beef sector called for an end to the points system, saying it was difficult to understand.

In conjunction with another change to the regulations, leaseholders worried that the new system would put small and new farms at a disadvantage.

The same 2019 regulations removed a cap on how much Crown land a single leaseholder could claim. Producers were previously limited to 4,800 animal unit months or AUMS. An AUM is the amount of forage needed to feed one 1,000-pound cow for a month.

The cap removal and auction system were introduced “to reflect the increase in farm size and become more aligned with our other markets based on free enterprise and fluctuations found in agriculture,” said provincial Agriculture Minister Derek Johnson.

The Manitoba Beef Producers originally supported elimination of the cap, but later expressed support for its re-instatement with higher allowable AUMs.

The province said a shorter term would bring land into rotation more often and give new producers more chances to throw their hats in the ring.

But leaseholders argued that small farms would face the losing proposition of bidding at auction against larger farms with more buying power. Without a cap, what would stop those larger farms from snapping up everything in sight?

The province said market forces would keep things in check, since producers would only pay what made economic sense for a given parcel.

“The most recent auction seems to demonstrate that Crown land is much more productive than historically presented,” the province said in an email to the Co-operator.

“Profitability in agriculture requires good business sense. Successful leaseholders have done the math and see that their ultimate bids pencil out for a 15-year lease.”

Coming due

The leaseholders association says auctions have shown its earlier concerns have been realized.

“As with every auction since the changes were implemented, the richest bidders had their way and young ranchers were left with no opportunity to develop viable operations… The two largest leaseholders in the province again expanded their holdings and effectively shut out any producers in their areas from acquiring any leases,” the association said.

It also claimed the auction lacked transparency. Online bidding did not allow participants to know who was in the hunt, and results were not announced for a week.

“When all these changes came, we said, you know, the auction system is a good system if you’re going to use it to auction off leases that have been voluntarily given up or if you have new land that you want to start opening up … but we said a live auction,” said Dyck.

Producers said an in-person auction would dissuade non-locals from taking leases and would encourage accountability.

An auction system was in place before but Dyck says this year was the first in which the leaseholders in her area saw significant fallout.

“The last auction didn’t have any really good leases in this area. There was just one single quarter of swamp, no fences on it, that sort of thing,” she said. “It wasn’t that much of a big deal, plus it wasn’t anybody’s place.”

This time, several parcels on the block were surrendered leases. The association has previously said that higher rents and a lack of unit transfer (which under the old system allowed a producer to link lease rights with the sale of private land) have made it hard to keep ranches viable and have reduced farm values to the point of being unsellable.

But the province said unit transfers artificially inflated land values.

At least one of this year’s surrendered leases belonged to an Indigenous rancher. The Manitoba Métis Federation says more than 50 of its members are leaseholders.

“They’ve been negatively impacted in some way or another by the actions and inactions taken by the province,” said federation agriculture minister David Beaudin. “Some of the Red River Métis Crown land leaseholders had no choice but to relinquish their leases, their business and therefore their livelihood and way of life.”

Last year, the province announced rent reductions over the next three years in light of stresses including the 2021 drought. However, they are “not mitigating the financial stress experienced by the current leaseholders,” Beaudin said.

“Right now, far too many farmers and ranchers have been forced to relinquish a portion of their Crown land lease or all of it under the guise of modernization, but the amendments make it hard for small to medium producers to pay their rent on lands due to the rates going up by 100 to 200 per cent.”

Strong calf prices could allow ranchers to grow the cattle herd after reductions made in recent drought years. Johnson said that would increase competition for land. At the same time, the market-based rental formula means that increases in cattle prices will also increase rent on Crown lands.

Boon or bust?

Johnson disputed the claim that young producers are being locked out of Crown land leases. He said the system is making land available more quickly, and that young producers make up a significant slice of those taking up leases.

Provincial reports estimate 36 per cent of parcels divvied out this year went to young producers.

Larger farms do have an advantage at auction, Johnson admitted, and economies of scale play into profitability.

“Farm land and farm ownership consolidation has been occurring in Manitoba and well across Canada, for that matter, and we don’t interfere as governments,” Johnson said.

There is also the impact of succession.

“What I’ve seen in my area over the years, you have a producer that’s successful and keeps buying up land and they get larger and larger and with that comes economies of scale … and then you fast forward and there are three children who now want to take over the farm. So that larger area now splits into three, for example,” Johnson said.

The province has also said land is broken up into smaller, more accessible parcels under the new system.

Tom Olson of Olson’s Conservation Bison Ranch said he was working with the previous landholders before this year’s auction. According to a draft list of auction winners provided to the Co-operator, the bison operation leased at least 20 parcels available around Pine River.

“We had long-standing arrangements that, when [the leaseholders] retired, we would purchase from them because there aren’t that many purchasers in the area. It’s a tough place to make a living,” Olson said, adding his operation had already paid those producers for land improvements.

Under the old system, those arrangements would have happened with a farm sale and unit transfer. The new system required the bison operation to bid at auction.

“It’s more expensive for us, but obviously we bought the deeded land and we do need that leased land because it makes a continuous unit,” Olson said.

Other parcels involved land no one was interested in, but butted up against bison ranch land. Those parcels fit well with the operation’s goal of recovering tall grass parkland ecosystem while also producing bison sustainably.

“We’re trying to restore basically an extinct ecosystem,” he said, adding that the operation requires significant land to have the desired impact.

The regulations are an inconvenience, according to Olson.

“On the other hand, I do have some sympathy for the government in the sense that governments are broke. Everybody’s broke.”

In late 2022, the province reopened the discourse on Crown lands. Producers were urged to fill out surveys on the issue.

“Long term … really we see the land being taken up and utilized,” Johnson said of the province’s Crown land vision.

“I grew up in an area in the Interlake … and I saw Crown land when I was a kid lay dormant for years on end. Fences weren’t kept up enough to keep cattle in and it wasn’t being hayed.

“I don’t see that anymore. Utilizing the land and having it used [by] whoever wants to use it is advantageous to the industry as a whole.”

The post Enter the bidding wars for Crown land appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

It is a scandal that was disguised as ‘red tape cutting’ and driven by the erroneous idea that agricultural Crown land access for cattle production needed fixing. To quote MBP on the topic, in the March 2017 issue of its Cattle Country magazine: “… the Minister of Agriculture has announced his goal of increasing the provincial cattle herd to pre-BSE numbers and critical to this will be increased access to agriculture Crown land in Manitoba.” Apparently, the minister and MBP targeted the points-based lease transfer system for stopping access to land for cow production.

But, six years later, has the goal of the minister and MBP been met? Their goal left out the interests and needs of Manitobans, even if there is a desire to increase the size of the cow herd. But the move to ‘flexible transfer’ was really a move to the highest dollar bid auction for the transfer of agricultural Crown land lease units from 2020 onward.

It’s unfortunate this is the path that was chosen. The poor cattle market situation had a larger effect on ranchers’ ability to access Crown land than the transfer system of the time, as did drought and flooding.

The MBP is now backpedalling on their and the ministers’ ill-advised highest bidder unit transfer system. And the minister is now saying 50 per cent of the fee increases for 2023 will be forgiven — which I will note makes it clear there WAS an increase — and there will be a 33 per cent hold on the increase for next year. But this is simply pushing the province’s money grab a bit further into the future, and the full rate will eventually be applied.

The lease auctions are no longer held face-to-face and the new rules with shorter 15-year leases have devalued the assets of retiring Crown land lease holders. Retirement plans are in disarray and difficulty.

At the other end of the spectrum, young ranchers are now burdened to finance an up-front auction bid, and lease fees that are now three times higher, all for the shorter lease terms. Will this young leaseholder be secure on the next 15-year lease?

To further confuse the situation is the fact that lease conditions are not clear about any option to transfer the lease to the next willing generation. Under the previous system, transfer to the next generation was available by the points system and asset transfer was recognized and paid to the retiree.

The higher fees and auction fees are both new revenue for the province. But that ignores a larger hit to the provincial bottom line in the form of hollowed-out rural communities. That’s because there’s no longer a requirement that bidders on Manitoba Crown lands be Manitoba residents, and there’s no requirement for leaseholders to live on, or even near, their lease.

It’s said that so far the province has collected an additional $5 million in revenue from the new lease system. If that is so — and I admit that at this point it’s only a rumour — that would represent more than 3300 steers, at a market value of $1,500. How does this increase the provincial cattle herd? Who does MBP and the minister ask to raise those 3300 steers?

I live next to some Crown lands, and I am concerned for my neighbours and worry about the ongoing management of Crown land. MBP and I know this is a public asset and Treaty land.

I am calling — and lease holders need to call for – the provincial government to hold a referendum amongst agricultural Crown land leaseholders from 2015 to now and ask the critical question: Do leaseholders wish to see the province stop its highest bidder system and restore the points-based system and more reasonable leasing fees?

It’s a simple yes-or-no question.

Ian L. Robson
Deleau, Man.

The post Letters: Crown land leaseholders deserve vote appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“Guardians of the Grasslands: The Game” is a sim-based video game geared towards students in grades seven to ten. The game is scheduled for launch at the end of March in Alberta and in other provinces by the beginning of the school year, the Manitoba Beef Producers’ annual meeting heard.

The Guardians of the Grasslands brand isn’t new to educators. Guardians of the Grasslands in the Classroom was launched in 2021 through Agriculture in the Classroom. The resource is aligned to the curriculum of the respective provinces and includes a lesson plan and workbook that students fill out based on what they’ve learned after watching the film.

“This game is the next iteration, kind of keeping up the momentum (of the documentary) and giving students a different, more interactive way to learn about the topic,” says Lynsay Beavers, stakeholder engagement specialist with the CCA. “Everything has been narrated by the same fellow who narrates Guardians of the Grasslands, so it all feels very cohesive.”

Unlike other agriculture-themed simulation games like “Farmers’ Life,” it is not focused on making a profit from farming.

“We’re not managing the animals for health, and we’re not teaching people how to be farmers or ranchers,” Beavers said. “We’re teaching them how to manage an ecosystem.”

The game’s running time is also much shorter than other sim-based games, and that’s largely because it’s designed to be finished within a 40-minute class.

“I’d say the fastest that it can be completed is probably somewhere between 12 and 15 minutes, if they make all the right choices,” says Beavers.

As such, it is quite simple. The game is based on rotational grazing. The student gets to choose their avatar, the cattle type (Hereford, Black Angus, or Charolais), and their landscape (river, pond, or stream). The goal of the game is to score carbon and wildlife points.

The player has several fields (paddocks) their cattle can be moved into for grazing. Carbon points are earned by grazing the right fields for the right amount of time. If they overgraze, they lose carbon points. Before the player is able to move their cattle from one field to another, they must answer a skill-testing question based on information they learned in the documentary.

Wildlife or invasive weeds alerts will pop up intermittently during the game, and students get wildlife points for finding them and correctly interacting with them. For instance, if a certain animal appears in a field, you will lose wildlife points if you move your cattle into that field to graze.

Fifteen carbon points and five wildlife points are needed to win the game.

The game was developed with funding from the Canadian Agricultural Partnership and the Canadian Cattle Association. The CCA worked with the Alberta-based company, Inside Education, to make sure the game aligned with the Alberta teaching curriculum. The game will be rolled out through Agriculture for Life, an Alberta-based not-for-profit charity that fills a similar role to Agriculture in the Classroom in other parts of Canada.

While the rollout is happening in Alberta first, Beavers says there are plans in the works to expand the game into other jurisdictions.

“We’re just working with the provinces,” she says. “We have to secure some extra funding because the game will have to change slightly to align with their curriculum.”

Those changes don’t only relate to how it fits into a lesson plan. Game developers are consulting with conservation groups like Birds Canada and Ducks Unlimited to make certain that the wildlife is representative of the local environment.

“A lot of what’s in the Alberta game is very much transferable to Saskatchewan,” says Beavers. “But in Manitoba and definitely in Ontario, there will be different species that the students encounter when they’re collecting wildlife points. So we kind of have to switch that up.”

Beavers said there’s still a lot of work to do to get it into other provinces, which is why the launch is being delayed until September. They haven’t even firmed up who will be delivering the program in schools outside of Alberta. But in all likelihood, it will be Ag in the Classroom, since they are already involved in the other Guardians of the Grasslands educational products.

A reduced version of the game is currently being developed and will be marketed for use at trade shows. The number of points needed to win will be reduced, and the skill-testing questions will also be removed.

“You can just walk up to a booth and play in five minutes, and then carry on your way,” says Beavers. The trade show version will be up and running by July.

The “Guardians of the Grasslands” documentary is a 12-minute film that was released to film festivals in 2019. After earning accolades, strong reviews, and several awards, it was launched to the public in 2021. The documentary explains the role that cattle play in maintaining the health of the Great Plains grasslands. In addition to its continued use in classrooms, the short documentary continues to be showcased at environmental conferences, including the recent COP 27 in Dubai and COP 15 in Montreal.

The post Video game aims to educate on grasslands appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Living Labs – Eastern Prairies is an effort spearheaded by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada over four watersheds in the province: Upper Oak River, Swan Lake, North Shannon Creek and Main Drain.

The Seine Rat Rosseau Watershed District (SRRWD), which encompasses the Main Drain watershed, recently held a tour to highlight some of the research underway through the program.

Dorthea Gregoire, regenerative agriculture co-ordinator with SRRWD, led the tour, noting the group was excited to watch projects take form since their launch in 2019.

“Everything that we started off in Living Labs seemed really unattainable four years ago, so it’s nice to see everything flowing together,” she said.

At the heart of the effort is collaboration with local farmers to monitor and upgrade land use practices.

The first site on the tour was a project to monitor water flow and quality from tile drainage on a 45-acre heavy clay soil site at Les Felsch’s farm.

“It is an ideal site for monitoring because it’s buffered by the road and there’s no overland flow from other fields,” said Steve Sager of AAFC Morden.

All water running off the site accumulates in a manhole equipped with sensors that allow researchers to monitor flow, sediments, nutrient levels and salinity as water emerges from the tile. A weather station automatically uploads information that is accessible at any time. The station can also be programmed to send a text message to researchers when a specific event occurs.

This site is paired with three other drainage projects; two in North Shannon Creek and one in Swan Lake.

“So these four sites will provide data to get a better understanding of the impact of tile drainage and to come up with BMPs (best management practices) to address any concerns,” Sager said.

The goal is to examine what soil and landscape factors impact yield and have data that allows farmers to tweak their practices for next season.

Gregoire said there’s no agenda attached to the information provided to the farmer.

“Often when you’re talking about tile drainage, the first point of contact is the salesman,” she said. “So from our point of view, it’s always really nice to be able to put our producers in contact with people who have experience and knowledge but don’t have any sales objectives.”

Neil Claringbould’s farm was the next stop on the tour, where SRRWD helped him set up a retention pond with a simple and inexpensive design. A berm was placed across the creek channel. A culvert allows low flow to pass unhindered and the large rock-reinforced spillway accommodates high flow.

The retention pond is one of two on Claringbould’s farm, and there’s a third one along the same creek on Wayne Chabaty’s property.

“Now we’re starting to put them in series,” said Joey Pankiw, interim manager with SRRWD. “We’re just slowing the water down to help alleviate some of the pressure on municipal infrastructure as we go down the drain.”

“Altogether, 10 producers have done water retention with us,” Gregoire said. They participated in a survey conducted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, which did a cost-benefit analysis of the practice.

“Although they’re still finalizing their draft, they’re talking about a three-to-one cost benefit,” Gregoire said. “So for every dollar we’re putting into these retentions, whether it’s the producers or the municipality, they’re gaining $3.”

Gregoire said the 3:1 ratio is conservative because the benefits are hard to quantify.

The final stop on the tour was a Claringbould hay field. Mae Elsinger from AAFC Brandon is gathering data to help with grazing management.

“We’re starting to see a lot more funding coming forward for grazing management practices that help to sequester carbon into carbon dioxide,” Elsinger said. “Grazing pastures aren’t all the same; they all have different levels of productivity, whether it’s because of soil type or what was planted there and the health of it.”

Her job is to examine forage productivity and pasture health on different soils, vegetation types and grazing practices. To do so, she has set up three grazing cages to protect certain areas from cattle. She took a cut at peak productivity in early July and came back in mid-September to get a regrowth sample.

Elsinger divides the material into grassy and leguminous material, takes it to the lab, dries it and weighs it.

“That will give us forage productivity and the ratio of legume to grass,” Elsinger said. After that, she grinds the material and sends it to a feed quality lab in Winnipeg to determine crude protein, mineral content and digestibility.

“This will be one of our better productivity fields. We’re fortunate this year to have rainfall to give us great regrowth.”

The post Living Labs links research with the farm appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“The goal was really to look at the success of different methods of introducing alfalfa into an existing grass stand and then compare that to a stand with fertilization only and a control,” said MBFI general manager Mary-Jane Orr.

Why it matters: Starting a new pasture mix from scratch may not be a good option for producers who want the benefit of more legumes but don’t have pastures healthy enough to avoid damage from breaking land.

When MBFI took over an old research centre pasture, now known as the First Street Pasture site, it found that leafy spurge had thoroughly infested the area and the rest was dominated by smooth brome and Kentucky bluegrass. Soil was light, easily erodible and vulnerable to environmental stress. Other than occasional sweet clover, legumes were almost non-existent.

Those depleted acres were perfect for improvement projects. Researchers tested low-disturbance alfalfa establishment practices, aimed at retaining precious organic matter, reducing erosion and establishing reliable stands.

Without seeding forage, Orr noted, the result is likely to be unproductive, open ground and further pressure from noxious weeds like leafy spurge.

It is a debate that Charlotte Crawley of the Ducks Unlimited Canada Marginal Areas Program hears often.

“I get a lot of questions about, ‘should I rip it up? Is there a way to rejuvenate it without ripping it up?’ and there’s implications for both,” she said. “Obviously, cost comes into account. Breaking land and starting over can be expensive, but the journey back from something that’s kind of beat up is a long road, and it’s not a rapid turnaround.”

By Crawley’s count, it often takes up to three years for sod-seeded legumes to make a noticeable difference.

Trial details

At MBFI, the team hoped that either sod seeding or broadcasting alfalfa seed – followed by a short but intensive mob graze to pound seeds into the ground – might improve quality of hay, fix nitrogen and build organic matter with minimal soil disturbance.

The brainchild of now-retired Manitoba Agriculture forage specialist Jane Thornton, the project started in 2016 and was replicated twice annually for three years.

The two seeding treatments were, in turn, compared to plots that only saw a shot of fertilizer and an untouched control. Both fertilizer-only and seeded plots were given 30 pounds per acre of phosphorus and half that rate of sulphur. Alfalfa seed was also mixed with 11 pounds an acre of elemental sulphur as a carrier.

Three years later, it was clear that rainfall would be key for any producer wanting to try either seeding method.

Plots planted with alfalfa in 2016 and 2017 eventually got good establishment, although broadcast and mob grazing brought the best initial catch. Sod-seeded strips had 4.8 to 6.5 stems per square foot in the year they were established, while mob grazed areas ranged from 13.4 to 20.1 stems per foot.

By last year, however, the seeding treatments had largely evened out. Seeded strips from 2016 and 2017 returned 16.4 to almost 18 alfalfa stems per square foot, regardless of how they were sown.

In the drier conditions of 2018, results were significantly less. Very little alfalfa from either seeding technique caught that year, according to Orr.

“We did have some establishment, but it wasn’t enough to really keep monitoring over time.”

Since the end of the trial, the team at MBFI has continued to measure yield on the plots. Yield benefit on fertility-only plots has faded, perhaps unsurprisingly after four to seven years since treatment, Orr noted, although plots with successful alfalfa were still seeing significant gains.

Last year, despite drought conditions, the team took 2,200 pounds per acre of forage off plots that had been broadcast with alfalfa and mob grazed in 2016. Sod-seeded plots from that year yielded 1,900 pounds per acre.

In comparison, fertility-only and control plots saw 890 to 950 pounds per acre.

In plots planted in 2017, one of the more successful years, fertility alone boosted forage production by 300 pounds an acre, up from 1,400 pounds per acre on control plots.

However, both seeding techniques were very much ahead. Plots that had been sod-seeded provided 2,800 pounds per acre of forage, while plots that had been broadcast and mob grazed led the pack with 3,000 pounds per acre.

“We’re seeing at least, maybe, two and a quarter times higher productivity five years after seeding, roughly,” Orr said. “We’re still seeing a really prolific impact of introducing alfalfa into that perennial stand and seeing a dramatic doubling of productivity.”

Considerations

Marginal land that is light and overtaken by less desirable grass species may well be a contender for sod-seeding, according to Crawley. She has only seen success with legume mixes such as alfalfa, cicer milkvetch, birdsfoot trefoil or sainfoin, and said seeding more productive grasses into established grass has little chance.

Other advice puts the ideal seeding window in May with rates of seven pounds an acre, and starter phosphorus is also recommended.

Crawley has had experience with the broadcast-mob grazing technique tested at MBFI and sees it as a valid option if the producer has a fair amount of open ground and enough cattle for good hoof action. Thatch is the enemy of the technique, said Crawley, since seed-to-soil contact will be an issue.

Neither option provides an immediate fix.

“You just have to weigh the cost and benefit with, ‘do I need a quick turnaround? Do I need a fast improvement in production?’ and if the answer to those two things are yes, you might be better off looking at starting over again,” Crawley said.

“If you’re on a site that is risky to break, such as something that’s really sandy, something that’s really stony that you might not want to take breaking equipment over, something with a little bit more challenging terrain, those variables might work better for a sod seed.”

Equipment will be another deciding factor, both Orr and Crawley said. Both emphasized the importance of having the proper drill for sod seeding.

The MBFI project used a 10-foot double press drill, though it was not designed for that type of work.

“I would expect to see a much higher establishment success with a no-till disc drill or some other kind of no-till drill that would allow you to have better soil to seed contact,” Orr said.

“One thing that this demonstration does tell us is that, in years that we had moisture, this drill that didn’t have the target seed-to-soil contact ended up having some results that were maybe more comparable to what you would get with broadcasting and mob grazing.

“And that, in years with good moisture, broadcasting and mob grazing, even if you don’t have equipment, can be a really successful way of establishing alfalfa into a marginal pasture.”

Crawley said a drill with wider openers will have issues with soil to seed contact, “without making a real lumpy mess of the field.

“In that instance, I think I would recommend breaking if you don’t have access to the correct equipment.”

The Thornton study will become the foundation for expanded work at MBFI. Orr says the facility is looking at a revised version of the same sod-seeded and broadcast-mob grazed experiment, this time with more species. That work may start next season.

The post A marginal pasture takeover appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.