The Stratus AirSprayer, a new drone tool unveiled by Saskatchewan-based Precision AI in July, is unlike anything she’s seen so far.

“I think they’ve got something really special,” says Meisser, who was invited to see the AirSprayer in action during field testing in New Mexico in May.

“There are a lot of things that make the Stratus AirSprayer unique,” she adds. “I think it will change how the farming community starts to think about managing crops. It’s going to shift some mindsets.”

The Stratus AirSprayer is different than the quadcopters and fixed-wing UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) typically associated with ag drones. Essentially, it’s a powered paraglider — one that can carry heavier loads and stay aloft much longer than conventional drones.

Daniel McCann, founder and CEO of Precision AI, says the advanced, autonomous aerial sprayer was designed to increase efficiency and maximize field time in the kind of large-acre farms found in Western Canada.

“Spray drones are great if you have 40 acres of onions or something like that,” says McCann. “But if you’ve got 10,000 acres of canola, good luck getting a small drone sprayer to cover that.”

The body of the Stratus AirSprayer is 3.25 metres (10 feet, eight inches) long, 2.1 metres (six feet, nine inches) wide and 2.25 metres (seven feet, five inches) high. It weighs 700 lbs. (318 kg) empty and can carry a payload of up to 833 lbs. (378 kg).

The machine has a three-blade propeller at the back powered by a Rotax 100-horsepower gasoline engine, and it relies on a 541-square-foot (50.3-metre) parachute or “soft wing” to stay aloft.

McCann acknowledges the Precision AI team was a bit worried at first about how the UAV’s parachute would go over, given that it’s so different.

But he says that really hasn’t been a concern, once farmers are shown how the Stratus AirSprayer works, and they can see how handling the parachute isn’t any harder than folding and unfolding a spray boom.

The flight speed of the AirSprayer is just under 40 m.p.h. (61 km/h) and it is able to take off from a farmer’s field as long as there is 350 to 500 feet (107 to 152 metres) of runway room available. When the job’s done, the hardware can be loaded onto a flatbed truck or a 12-foot trailer, and the canopy folded and packed up into an easy-to-carry travel bag.

The Stratus AirSprayer can carry 100 U.S. gallons (378 litres) of herbicide, fungicide or insecticide solutions, which according to Precision AI is almost 20 times more than smaller ag drones. A bigger payload means more time in the air and more acres covered in a day.

The gas-powered AirSprayer can fly up to five hours before refueling, which McCann maintains is an obvious advantage over electric drones. “Your typical spray drones, even the big ones, typically max out at about 10 minutes of airtime, then you’ve got to swap batteries and refill it,” he says.

All this can mean substantial savings for farmers. Precision AI maintains it costs less than $3 per acre to operate the Stratus AirSprayer, a fraction of the cost of traditional drone technology which it says ranges from $6 to $13 per acre.

The automated Stratus AirSprayer can do precise GPS-guided broadcast sprays in two interchangeable swath widths, one 18 feet (5.5-metre) wide and the other 30 feet (nine-metres) wide.

A Generation Two version of the AirSprayer, slated to be released soon after the Generation One model, will feature green-on-green spray capability, developed by Precision AI with the use of artificial intelligence and advanced computer vision.

McCann says even with its high-tech capabilities, the Stratus AirSprayer isn’t difficult to operate and maintain, adding to its appeal to farmers. “Except for the onboard AI system, everything can be fixed fairly easily.”

While the Stratus AirSprayer is designed to allow farmers to do large-scale aerial applications on their own, it isn’t meant to compete directly with crop dusters and other aerial spraying businesses. Instead, Precision AI views them as potential partners as the UAV is unrolled in the Canadian market.

That likely won’t happen right away, as the Canadian government hasn’t yet approved using drones in aerial applications of crop protectant products. Precision AI is on a committee to advise Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) on the necessary changes required to allow spraying from UAVs.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got the technology that can be used as an automated aerial sprayer. It’s built out, and we just need to wait for the regulatory environment to catch up,” says McCann.

Precision AI hopes the PMRA will follow the lead of U.S. regulators and release a decision soon approving the use of drones for ag chemical applications. In the meantime, Precision AI plans to continue testing in the U.S. as well as on farms in Western Canada as it prepares for a limited release of the Stratus AirSprayer next year.

Meisser views the AirSprayer as a good value proposition, both in terms of productivity and return on investment. She also sees it as a very practical solution for farmers looking to get the most out of their crops.

“The Precision AI team is really connected to the farming community and are trying to build solutions for farmers with farmers. I think that they’re solving problems that matter,” she says.

“I think they just got down to brass tacks to determine what does this (machine) really need to do.”

In Meisser’s eyes, it won’t take long for the Stratus AirSprayer to gain traction among farmers once it catches on with leading-edge ag adopters and influencers willing to give the technology a try.

“You just need some strong ambassadors to showcase the technology,” she says. “Farmers are the most innovative people I know. They solve problems on a daily basis, and it doesn’t take any of them too long to identify where they see value. I think they will embrace it.”

The post Paraglider powers a new kind of sprayer appeared first on Country Guide.

“Anthracnose is a polycyclic disease, which means it can go through multiple life cycles during the growing season and due to this can spread rapidly in warm, humid conditions. Depending on timing and severity of infection, yield losses can exceed 50 per cent,” says Brown.

To make matters worse, anthracnose resistant to Group 11 strobilurin fungicides has started to show up in some lentil-producing areas in the Prairies.

Corteva Agriscience is offering a solution — a new crop protection product called Zetigo PRM with the Adavelt active. According to Corteva, the Adavelt active is a Group 21 fungicide with a novel mode of action that makes it a strong resistance management tool.

“This is good news for lentil growers,” says Brown. “With the recent confirmation of strobilurin-insensitive anthracnose populations in lentils, the introduction of a new fungicide group to lentil producers with activity on anthracnose is timely.

“This fungicide adds another tool to a lentil producer’s tool kit as the only registered Group 21 fungicide in Western Canada (which was only used) for late blight on potatoes until now. As part of an integrated pest management plan that includes cultural practices, a diverse crop rotation and mixing and rotating fungicide modes of action, it will help in fighting fungicide insensitivity.”

Kirsten Ratzlaff, product manager for seed applied technology at Corteva Agriscience, described Zetigo PRM as “a solid tool for disease management, but also a really important solution for resistance management” in an interview with Grainews.

“Novel modes of action certainly don’t happen every day … so we’re certainly excited to be able to provide a very critical tool for a very critical crop group in Western Canada,” she says.

“When we think about resistance management, there’s really only so many tools in the tool box. Bringing in new actives can help protect our technology and ensures we still get that high level of disease protection we need.”

Preventive and curative properties

According to a Corteva Agriscience press release, the Adavelt active offers preventive properties against a wide range of diseases severely affecting yield, along with curative properties when used in the early stages of infection.

“By adding Adavelt to disease management programs, farmers can simplify fungal control efforts and reduce resistance risks, while protecting the yield potential and quality of crops, both now and in future seasons,” stated the release.

Robert King, executive vice-president of crop protection business at Corteva Agriscience, states in the release that the commercialization of the Adavelt active is a testament to the company’s strong R&D pipeline.

“Farmers have a critical need for innovative fungicides to address the challenges they face today. Adavelt active delivers exactly that — a new, flexible option to protect crops and preserve yield potential.”

Bretton Davie, communications leader for Corteva Agriscience Canada, told Grainews the Adavelt active was developed after the discovery of a naturally occurring fungicide found in soil microbes, which scientists dubbed UK-2A.

“From there, Corteva Agriscience set to work making improvements and ultimately bringing to market Inatreq active, a naturally derived fungicide for cereal and banana crops,” says Davie.

“Researchers at Corteva then saw even more potential and turned their attention to designing a product that could expand fungicide options for farmers. The result was Adavelt.”

Zetigo PRM was approved and registered for use in lentils in Canada in March, and Corteva Agriscience is anticipating approval for use in additional pulse crops in time for the 2024 season.

“We really wanted to make sure this very valuable option for lentil growers is accessible as early as possible,” says Ratzlaff. “We are running an introductory launch focused primarily on lentils support for 2023, targeting the critical diseases there and most notably anthracnose, which we know is one of the most significant, if not the most significant, disease in that crop.

“Then we are working on expanding the label for the 2024 season. We’ll launch broadly with a much more significant volume with a very extended pulse crop and pulse disease label.”

Brown says that’s welcome news for Prairie farmers. “Registration on other pulses and diseases would be a benefit to pulse producers, increasing the fungicide options available to them and ultimately helping to fight fungicide insensitivity.”

Ratzlaff says the Adavelt active was trialled at a number of sites in Western Canada last year. She adds Corteva Agriscience plans to step that up this season with an extensive program of field-scale trials on pulse producers’ farms.

Canada was one of three countries — Australia and South Korea were the others — where the Adavelt active received product registration earlier this year. Corteva plans to offer Adavelt in more countries in the coming years, following regulatory approvals in those jurisdictions.

“There’s going to be a range of diseases ultimately on the label,” says Ratzlaff. “This is an active that’s going to provide a high level of protection in more than 30 crops across the world.”

– This article was originally published at Grainews.

The post New tool for anthracnose control in lentils appeared first on Country Guide.

McCain Foods announced in November it was teaming up with Farm Credit Canada (FCC) for a new program aimed at reducing financial barriers for potato farmers transitioning to sustainable agricultural practices. This follows the move by McCain in August to partner with McDonald’s Canada to establish the Future of Potato Farming Fund, which will offer $1 million in grants to growers to help them implement regenerative ag practices and technology.

Both programs support McCain Foods’ global Regenerative Agriculture Framework. This voluntary framework, which supports farmers as they transition to sustainable agriculture, was developed in collaboration with a range of stakeholders. It sets clear definitions and measurements for a regenerative potato acre at four different stages — onboarding, beginner, expert and master levels.

“Smart and sustainable farming is a key pillar of McCain’s commitment to be a more environmentally conscious company,” says Daniel Metherington, vice-president of agriculture at McCain Foods.

“Regenerative agriculture is part of our DNA as a family business born on a potato farm in Florenceville, New Brunswick, in the 1950s,” he adds. “Regenerative agriculture also provides critical climate adaptation to secure supply for the future of our industry. We are committed to working in partnership with our growers to identify and test regenerative practices that make agronomic and economic sense and build soils to improve resilience.”

McCain acknowledges the transition to more sustainable farming practices often requires upfront investments in new equipment and practices from farmers. Metherington says the new programs are intended to help potato growers with that.

McCain and FCC Initiative

The funding initiative offered by McCain Foods and FCC offers financial incentives to McCain’s 140 or so potato farming partners in New Brunswick, Manitoba and Alberta. It uses a combination of funds from FCC’s Sustainability Incentive Program and from McCain to issue an annual incentive to producers who are at the onboarding level or higher on the Regenerative Agriculture Framework.

FCC customers who are McCain potato suppliers are eligible to receive incentive payments of up to $2,000 a year. Participating McCain growers can also receive free access to FCC AgExpert farm management software for a year.

McCain Foods is adding to the FCC incentive paid to its potato producers, based on where the farmers are in their journey on the Regenerative Agricultural Framework. McCain will provide matching funds of $2,000 to eligible producers at the onboarding level, while those at the highest master level are eligible to receive up to $14,000 from McCain.

“McCain and FCC are proud to both reward growers who are leading the way on regenerative agriculture and reduce barriers for those who are starting the journey,” says Metherington. “We saw (this) as a good opportunity to build an incentive program to encourage farmers to adopt regenerative agricultural practices and move their way up our Regenerative Agricultural Framework.”

The executive director of New Brunswick Potatoes, Matt Hemphill, stated in a press release:

“We are excited to see this new offer between McCain and FCC that rewards Canadian potato growers for their sustainable practices and provides an incentive to advance. The ability for expert and master regenerative farmers to receive a significant incentive reduces barriers to farm investment in an era of rising rates, increasing complexity and escalating climate variability.”

Future of Potato Farming Fund

The Future of Potato Farming Fund established by McCain Foods and McDonald’s Canada provides education, demonstration and cost-sharing grants to eligible McCain producers.

The joint initiative consists of two rounds of grants (the first round opened last August) for farmers to implement established regulatory practices to build soil health and resilience. During the program, McCain Foods, McDonald’s Canada and the Soil Health Institute are working together to measure soil health progress in areas like increased soil organic carbon, aggregate stability and improved drainage capacity.

“Through our shared vision with McDonald’s Canada, we are focused on supporting our growers in accelerating the transition to the key principles of regenerative agriculture like maintaining living cover, reducing tillage intensity, diversifying rotations, reducing the intensity of chemical applications and enhancing biodiversity,” said Jeremy Carter, McCain’s director of agriculture for Western Canada, in a press release.

Under the Future of Potato Farming Fund’s cost-share mechanism, qualifying growers can get help paying for projects identified in the fund’s priority list of regenerative practices and technologies. These include cover crop seed, flower strip seed, lower intensity tillage equipment, decision support systems, organic soil amendments and more.

Hemphill said potato producers welcome the initiative. “This is a great example of supporting Canadian farmers with the tools they need to trial regenerative farming techniques, with an aim to future-proofing the land, and ensuing quality potatoes to share with Canadians for generations to come.”

Farm of the Future

Metherington says McCain Foods is making good headway as the company moves toward the 2030 regenerative ag goal for its contracted potato acreage.

“Farmers are already making great progress on this journey and our framework clearly lays out the areas of focus. Our local technical teams are working with farmers to understand which areas and practices will help and accelerate them along the framework,” he says.

“However, this is a total supply chain solution and new varieties also play a key role. McCain is heavily investing in this to ensure we bring varieties that optimize inputs and are more resilient to the climate challenges we are facing each year.”

Metherington notes the centrepiece of his company’s regenerative ag efforts in this country is Farm of the Future Canada, a commercial-scale, full rotation regenerative farm operated by McCain in Florenceville.

“Farm of the Future Canada has recently completed its second full growing season, and we are encouraged by the results,” says Metherington. He adds priority practices in the first two years included cover cropping, diversifying rotations, rotational grazing and controlled traffic farming.

Metherington says the purpose of the farm is to test regenerative ag practices and establish farming methods which are not only scalable and feasible but also make financial sense for potato producers.

“That said, we know regenerative best practices vary by region. For that reason, we need model farms in all three of our Canadian potato growing regions,” he says. To achieve this objective, McCain is launching Innovation Hubs with potato grower partners in Manitoba and Alberta who will test local regenerative best practices, technologies and new varieties in their fields. The first Innovation Hub will be in Manitoba this year.

Metherington says McCain designed its Farms of the Future project to test regenerative agricultural practices not just in Canada but in different potato growing regions around the world. Farm of the Future Canada led the way, and a second one, Farm of the Future Africa, will be established in South Africa. The location of a third Farm of the Future has yet to be announced.

– This article was originally published in the 2023 edition of the Potato Guide.

The post Breaking down barriers to sustainability in potato production appeared first on Country Guide.

Victoria Stamper, general manager of United Potato Growers of Canada, says producers felt the financial strain from high fertilizer, fuel, transport and labour costs throughout 2022. “It has been a really tough year for a lot of the growers,” she says.

Kevin Brubacher, general manager of the Ontario Potato Board, agrees. “This past season was the most expensive we’ve ever seen,” he says. “Fertilizer was a big part of that, but for everything across the board, we saw increased costs associated with it.”

Dan Sawatzky, general manager of Manitoba’s Keystone Potato Producers Association, says he doesn’t see much relief in sight. “The ability to buy fertilizer when the prices are lower is gone,” he explains. “I anticipate they will continue to be high throughout this spring, so there’s no window of opportunity this year to buy cheaper inputs.”

Brubacher says in contract negotiations with some of their major customers last year, potato producers for Ontario’s chipping sector were able to secure price increases to help offset the higher price tag for crop inputs. But he says it wasn’t enough to cover all the costs.

Sawatzky says processing potato producers in Manitoba managed to negotiate a bit of an increase in pricing in 2022, “so that helped to at least keep growers on an even playing field. Going forward, we’ll have to negotiate something to help out with those rising input costs in 2023 as well.”

Statistics Canada figures released December 7 showed the average potato yield in Canada in 2022 was 322.4 hundredweight per acre, up 0.2 per cent from 2021. Total production was also up — Canadian farmers produced just under 123 million hundredweight of potatoes, a 0.8 per cent increase from 2021.

Stamper notes the bump up in total potato production in Canada was due to increases in planted acres and yields in certain parts of the country. The overall planted acreage in Canada in 2022 was 386,591 acres — a 0.9 per cent increase that was largely due to increased demand for processing potatoes in North America.

Stamper says good weather at harvest helped farmers bring in almost all of the planted potato crop. “Weather conditions were very favourable during the harvest season across Canada, which permitted most growers to harvest the vast majority (98.7 per cent) of the total seeded area.”

Atlantic Canada

Total potato production in New Brunswick dropped 6.6 per cent to 17 million hundredweight and the average yield was down too, declining 5.9 per cent to 329.5 hundredweight per acre.

In Prince Edward Island, total production fell 2.2 per cent to 26.6 million hundredweight of potatoes. A big reason for this drop is the continued export ban on seed potatoes grown in P.E.I.

Canada stopped sending P.E.I. potatoes to the U.S. on November 21, 2021, after potato wart fungus had been detected a few weeks earlier in two fields on the Island being monitored by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The export ban on table potatoes to the U.S. was lifted in April 2022, but P.E.I. seed potatoes are still barred from shipment to the United States pending the outcome of a U.S. Department of Agriculture review.

The average potato yield in P.E.I. was up in 2022, however, climbing 0.9 per cent to 324.8 hundredweight per acre. Greg Donald, general manager of P.E.I. Potato Board, attributes the yield increase to good growing conditions on the Island.

“We had a really good spring as far as planting goes,” Donald says. “Early in the season we had better than average heat units and good moisture (and) we probably some of the nicest looking plant stands I’ve ever seen.”

Donald says the good weather lasted until the first or second week of August when it turned dry. “You can almost draw a line down the middle of the Island — the eastern half was dry and then the western half continued to get decent rains almost weekly. That did impact the final yield a little bit more in the eastern end.”

September saw Fiona, categorized as a post-tropical storm by the time it hit P.E.I. but still packing up to 140 km/hour winds, whip through the Island. “That was the worst storm we’ve ever seen,” says Donald. “It was like nothing folks had ever experienced before.”

Donald says P.E.I.’s potato harvest was delayed by four or five days due to widespread power outages and fallen trees that had to cleared from roads and farmers’ fields. “Many of our farms didn’t have any power to run bin pilers and sorting equipment and dirt eliminators and ventilation systems in warehouses.”

Donald says the saving grace after Fiona was “absolutely gorgeous weather” that continued well into fall.

“We needed it because of Fiona. We were really lucky we had good conditions,” he says, adding it allowed Island potato producers to finish harvest more or less on schedule. “I think farmers were really happy with the crop.”

Central Canada

Total potato production in Quebec was 14.9 million hundredweight last year, a 5.8 per cent increase from 2021. Average yield was up slightly to 308.7 hundredweight per acre, a 0.2 per cent increase. Ontario saw its total production numbers fall 8.9 per cent to 8.2 million hundredweight. The average yield was also lower, dropping 8.4 per cent to 219.9 hundredweight per acre.

Brubacher notes while there was a sizable drop in Ontario’s total production number in 2022, “it’s not as terrible as we anticipated during the summer.” He says the potato season started well for farmers but tailed off after that.

“We had some good rains after planting, but then the taps turned off and we didn’t see any (rain) until just before the end of August,” says Brubacher. “We had extremely dry weather, but for the most part we didn’t get any long-standing heat waves. The nighttime temperatures actually were fairly favourable through the summer.”

Brubacher says this meant most potatoes going into storage were good quality, although they were generally smaller due to the dry summer weather which interfered with the bulking process.

Western Canada

In Manitoba, total production was up 4.9 per cent to 26.1 million hundredweight in 2022 and the average yield climbed 3.2 per cent to 329.8 hundredweight per acre. Total production in Saskatchewan dropped 4.5 per cent to just under 1.5 million hundredweight and the average yield increased 2.0 per cent per cent to 250 hundredweight per acre.

Alberta saw an 8.9 per cent jump in total production to 26.8 million hundredweight and the average yield was up 3.6 per cent to 375.9 hundredweight per acre. In B.C., total production was down 23.1 per cent to 1.6 million hundredweight while the average yield was 320 hundredweight per acre, a 1.5 per cent decline from 2021.

Sawatzky says about 1,500 acres of potatoes in Manitoba had to be disced under in the spring due to crop damage caused by cold, wet weather, but things improved after that.

“We had a late season as we were about three weeks behind in our planting,” he says. “We did have ideal growing conditions though. We didn’t have the (extreme heat) some of the other areas did.”

Sawatzky says the good weather helped the Manitoba potato crop catch up, so it was only a week or so behind by the end of August. Some September rain delayed harvest for a few days and resulted in a few storage losses due to pink rot in some flooded fields.

“It was mid-September when guys got going in earnest,” says Sawatzky. “Most growers like to try and be done by October 1. I think there were only a few who made that deadline, so harvest dragged on longer than most years.”

Sawatzky notes an early October frost did a little bit of damage in some areas, but nothing severe enough to cause much storage breakdown.

Stamper says a July hailstorm as well as high temperatures throughout August tempered yield expectations for the Alberta potato crop, but favourable harvest conditions helped boost the average yield numbers in 2022 from the previous year.

“This larger crop will be welcome with an overall tight supply of processing potatoes in North America this season,” she says.

According to Stamper, the large drop in total production in British Columbia in 2022 reflects a cold, wet start to the year, followed by little rain and high temperatures throughout August and into September, which really put a damper on the potato crop in that province.

“B.C. was planting almost into June. They’re usually done way ahead of that. They were really, really behind,” says Stamper. She adds after mid-September, temperatures dropped nicely and produced good conditions for harvest, enabling growers to get most of the crop out of the ground despite dry ground in some areas.

– This article was originally published in the 2023 edition of the Potato Guide.

The post Where did potato production land in 2022? appeared first on Country Guide.

This, in turn, is driving up demand for biofuel feedstocks like canola oil, which is why Chris Vervaet says grain companies are spending some $2 billion over the next few years to boost canola crush capacity in Western Canada. Vervaet, who is the executive director of the Canadian Oilseed Processors Association, says he believes that’s something to get excited about.

“This is really going to be a good news story for canola farmers and the entire canola value chain, frankly,” says Vervaet, who maintains more competition for canola seed and increased crush capacity will not only support higher values for canola but will also provide other important benefits for Prairie farmers.

According to Vervaet, the demand for biodiesel and renewable biodiesel in North America is expected to climb to more than 17 billion litres by 2030. Both biodiesel and renewable diesel can be derived from vegetable oils but they are processed differently.

Vervaet says while Canada currently doesn’t produce any renewable biodiesel, production facilities will be coming online, which could see Canada produce up to four billion litres of it by 2030.

He notes the main driver for this burgeoning market is the emergence of new, low carbon or clean fuel regulations, both in Canada and the United States.

[RELATED] Canola crush plants seeing big-time profits

“It’s about government policy and regulation. That’s a big part of it. And really this pertains to any biofuel market,” says Vervaet. “In Canada, we’ve seen the final publication of the Clean Fuel Regulations in July, which is a pretty big step after five or six years of consultations on that regulation.

“In the United States, we also see a suite of different regulations and policies that support biofuel demand as well. You add those two together and we really do see in the coming years increased demand for feedstock like canola to lower the carbon footprint of transportation fuels in Canada and the United States.”

Vervaet expects biofuel to be a big demand driver not only for canola but for soybeans as well. “On the soybean side of the ledger, there’s also a lot of expansion of soybean crush happening in the United States, and again it’s largely because of the prospects of increased demand for biofuels in North America.”

New crush plants

In Canada, the burst in biofuel demand has helped spur grain handling giants like Richardson International, Cargill and Viterra to unveil plans to construct new canola crush plants or expand existing crush facilities in Western Canada.

Richardson International announced in March 2021 it was doubling its annual crushing capacity to more than 2.2. million tonnes of canola at its plant in Yorkton, Sask. The project is expected to be completed in early 2024.

Cargill announced in April 2021 it would build a new canola crush facility in Regina, Sask., to support growing global demand for canola. Construction of the $350-million plant, which will have an annual capacity of one million tonnes, started this past July and is slated to be completed by early 2024. In addition, Cargill stated it was updating and modernizing two other canola crush locations in Clavet, Sask., and Camrose, Alta., to increase volume and capabilities at both plants.

Also in April 2021, Viterra announced plans to build a “world-class” canola crushing facility in Regina. The annual crush capacity for the plant, which is targeted to be operational in late 2024, would be 2.5 million tonnes, making it what Viterra calls “the world’s largest integrated canola crush facility.”

This past January, Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL) and AGT Food and Ingredients announced they had signed a memorandum of understanding to build a $360-million canola crush facility in Regina. The plant, which will have an annual capacity of 1.1 million tonnes of canola seed, is part of a larger plan that includes an FCL renewable diesel facility.

Earlier this year, Ceres Global Ag announced a proposal to build a new canola crush plant and biodiesel refinery along the Canada-U.S. border at Northgate, Sask., but in June the company said it was suspending the initiative.

Vervaet maintains if all goes according to plan, canola crush capacity in Canada could reach 16 million tonnes annually once everything’s online in a few years’ time. More crush plants mean new players coming into the market, he says, which should provide canola producers with more delivery options and greater marketing flexibility.

“A farmer doesn’t necessarily have to pick between just one or two delivery points. They could have three or four,” he explains. “If they happen to be close to Regina, for example, they may have as many as four or five, when you look at both the processing footprint and the traditional country elevators as well.”

MarketsFarm analyst Bruce Burnett says he believes when western Canadian producers have more marketing choices, it’s bound to change the dynamics of canola pricing, since farmers will have more opportunities and leverage to land a better basis and price for their canola crop.

“As you get more and more (crush) capacity, particularly if you live in areas where you’ve suffered from a poor basis because of, let’s say, slackness in the export market, the additional capacity will certainly make a difference in terms of your ability to market your canola,” says Burnett.

Vervaet says he believes having a larger Canadian market for canola producers is also desirable from a market diversification and risk reduction perspective. He says having more domestic buyers should reduce dependence on export markets like China, where market access has been unpredictable over the last decade or so.

“Perhaps you don’t have the same reliance anymore on those unpredictable export markets,” says Vervaet. “We’ll have this market in our own backyard that is more secure and more predictable, which is helpful for farmers and the entire value chain.”

More canola needed

Vervaet says with the dramatic rise in crush capacity, the onus will be on farmers to ensure there is adequate supply to keep up with rising demand for canola seed — something that will require a significant boost to canola production in Canada and a concerted effort from everyone in the canola industry.

“We’re going to need to produce more. This is the top priority for the canola value chain, and it’s probably never been more pronounced than it is now because we see this new biofuel demand coming online,” he says. “It’s more on the yield side of the equation. There’s probably room for some more acres, but it’s really about increasing the amount of canola that we can produce per acre.”

Canola production did go up on Canadian farms this year but, of course, this is after the drought year of 2021, which saw meagre canola crops for many producers. According to a July 2022 crop estimates report from Statistics Canada, Canadian canola production was expected to rise 41.7 per cent to 19.5 million tonnes this year over last. This is due to better growing conditions boosting the national yield average to 40.5 bushels per acre (a whopping 47.8 per cent improvement from 2021).

Even so, that’s still quite a bit below the 52-bushels-per-acre target set by the Canola Council of Canada as a national yield goal for canola producers for 2025. Vervaet, however, remains cautiously optimistic.

“We don’t have much time to meet that goal (but) we’re confident as a value chain we’ll continue to be able to increase our yields going forward,” he says. “We have made a lot of progress over the decades in terms of the industry’s ability to meet the growing demands for canola, and to do more on the same amount of acres with a multi-faceted approach to increasing productivity.”

Vervaet is hopeful growth in the biofuel market will spur investment and innovation in the Canadian canola industry to new heights and help boost production by providing farmers with more tools and technology that support improvements in canola yields.

Coming up with improved, higher-yielding varieties is one way to do that, but Vervaet says he believes much more can be done to foster innovation in agronomic practices too. He notes the Canola Council of Canada (CCC) has lots of advice for farmers to improve productivity, such as recommendations for improving fertilizer efficiency and suggestions for different harvest techniques that ensure there is minimal canola loss.

Agronomy priorities

To help canola growers with the national yield target it has set for 2025, the CCC has a list of five agronomic priorities it maintains should not only boost productivity but also make farms more profitable and sustainable. Clint Jurke, CCC agronomy director, says the priorities are science-based actions identified by the CCC’s team of agronomy specialists.

“We believe farmers have all of the technology and tools available currently that we could be getting this 52-bushel average yield, provided there aren’t any more record-breaking droughts,” says Jurke. “We believe that we can do this. It’s just a matter of understanding which of the tools are going to do most of the heavy lifting.”

The CCC’s five agronomy priorities include the following:

• Use 4R nutrient management practices (right rate, right source, right place, right time).
• Choose the best seed traits for each field.
• Achieve a uniform five to eight plants per square foot.
• Identify and manage the top yield robbers.
• Harvest all seeds and deliver them at No.1 grade.

Jurke says by packaging key agronomic information into these five categories, “now we have something that’s hopefully a little simpler, a little more succinct, and that can be communicated to farmers that if (they) pay more attention to these five things, (they) will have more success going forward.”

Use 4R nutrient management practices

Applying the right fertilizer products at the right rate, right time and right place improves yields and reduces losses for farmers. However, a CCC survey of Prairie canola producers in the winter of 2020-21 showed only 24 per cent of respondents had a 4R nutrient management plan. Jurke says that number needs to be much higher.

“If growers can do a better job with their fertility decisions and their practices, then we know they will get better yields,” says Jurke. “Our target is to get 90 per cent of all acres on a 4R plan.”

Jurke says with fertilizer prices as high as they are, “farmers really need to make sure they’re getting dollar value out of every granule of fertilizer they put into the ground. This is where following the 4R nutrient program is going to help make sure that fertilizer is maximized, that none of it goes to waste.”

Choose the best seed traits for each field

Jurke says it’s not unusual for Prairie producers to rely on one or two canola varieties that promise high yields but may not get the desired results. He maintains that’s often because they’re not selecting the right traits for their fields.

The CCC agronomy specialists recommend farmers base their seed purchasing decisions on the best fit for each field. This can include disease resistance, weed control, days to maturity, pod-shatter resistance and other considerations. Also, producers can help weatherproof their canola by choosing cultivars that are consistently high yielding in various conditions and pest scenarios. The CCC has a tool for agronomists and farmers to compare cultivars at canolaperformancetrials.ca.

Jurke acknowledges with dozens of varieties commercially available, it can be difficult to choose the right one. He says canola producers who systematically select traits that address limitations within each field first, before selecting for yield, will have the best results.

Aim for a uniform five to eight plants per square foot

A consistent and uniform plant stand across the entire field is required for canola crops to reach their full yield potential. It also leads to consistent growth stage timing, which in turn helps with pesticide application timing.

Jurke says meta-analyses based on newer canola studies in Western Canada showed a uniform plant stand of five to eight plants per square foot will maintain the yield potential of canola.

He adds farmers need to factor in the risk potential of their fields when setting their plant stand targets. The CCC has some online calculators that can help canola producers set the right seeding rates to achieve their target stands.

Tackle the top yield robbers

Weeds, pests, soil types, mechanical problems, you name it — there are all kinds of things that can affect canola yields. The CCC agronomy team maintains the key to curbing yield loss is identifying the largest limiting factors and then focusing your time as well as your inputs on addressing those problems. It’s a big reason why scouting fields regularly is so important.

“The intent behind this is to encourage farmers to spend more time in the field looking at their crops and trying to understand where the limitations are and what’s causing issues for them,” says Jurke.

The CCC has scouting and management tips for major canola pests in the Diseases, Weeds and Insects chapters at canolaencyclopedia.ca.

Harvest all seed

Jurke explains the idea behind this principle is to deliver every seed at No.1 grade and leave none behind. For farmers to do this, he says, they need to: 1) give all seeds time to mature, 2) harvest with minimal losses, and 3) store canola without spoilage. Canola producers can find tips for all of these objectives in the Harvest and Storage chapters at canolaencyclopedia.ca.

“We do know that most years most farmers are losing a couple of bushels at the back end of the combine,” says Jurke. “If a farmer can spend more time with setting up the combine for each field and measuring the actual loss coming out of the back end of the combine, then I think they can minimize that loss quite significantly.”

Jurke says the CCC grower survey showed straight cutting rather than swathing canola was associated with higher yields for survey respondents who farm in the southwest Prairies. The survey results also indicated those respondents who did swath generally saw yield improvements when they swathed at 60 per cent seed colour change or later.

“A message that we’ve been talking about in the industry for 20 years is swath at 60 per cent seed colour change or later. Especially now that we have shatter-resistant varieties, swathing at 80, 90 per cent seed colour change is totally doable nowadays. You won’t lose very much seed with those modern cultivars or varieties,” says Jurke.

“If the grower waits for that 80 to 90 per cent, the likelihood is going to be (they’ll see) a five per cent additional yield gain. The later you can wait, the better the yields.”

– Mark Halsall is an associate editor at Grainews. His article was originally published in the Nov. 1, 2022 issue.

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“There’s a lot of money at stake,” says John Heard, a soil fertility extension specialist with Manitoba Agriculture. For corn producers, the risks are spending too much on expensive fertilizer on one hand and not buying enough fertilizer to really cash in on high crop prices on the other.

“There can be a large opportunity cost if under-fertilizing is undertaken,” Heard says. He notes in addition to economic and agronomic considerations, another key concern for farmers making nutrient management plans is reducing nitrous oxide and other emissions from fertilizer use — a key plank in Ottawa’s 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan released in March.

To help corn producers get the most out of their fertilizer dollars, Heard offered up some tips in a recent interview for Grainews magazine.

While corn has a large appetite for nitrogen, the good news for farmers is it’s much easier to address fertility problems in-season than it is for other Prairie crops like wheat and canola.

“It shows visual symptoms when nutrients are lacking probably better than most of our other crops. It shows us when it hurts,” says Heard. “Since corn has such a long lifespan, there’s lots of time to intervene. You can apply fertilizer like nitrogen from the previous fall right through until the crop is waist high.”

Heard says in Manitoba the optimum rates generally fall between 150 and 190 pounds of nitrogen per acre across a range of environments. He adds research work he has done with others has shown if you can get within 15 to 20 pounds of the optimal rate, the economic return in terms of yield is essentially the same.

Heard maintains soil testing is an excellent tool, not only for dialing into nitrogen rates but also as a way to audit fertility programs to ensure crop needs are being met.

He says a rule of thumb from University of Manitoba studies is if soil testing after a corn crop shows there are 20 to 50 pounds per acre of residual nitrogen, you’ve done well in applying enough nitrogen to meet the yield potential of the crop.

If tests indicate there are less than 20 pounds per acre left, the crop was undersupplied and likely fell short of its yield potential. If the tests show there are more than 50 pounds per acre left, then more nitrogen may have been applied than was needed to meet the crop’s yield potential.

As Heard points out, higher nitrogen levels can also be caused by drought, such as the case last year throughout much of the Prairies, where extremely dry conditions resulted in high to very high soil residual nitrogen levels in many fields.

“We’re all hoping that’s something farmers can exploit with this year’s crops,” Heard says. He maintains high corn prices and good residual soil nitrogen levels should keep corn a profitable component of a farmer’s rotation.

Heard also believes Manitoba farmers will likely reduce nitrogen rates for corn in 2022, primarily because of high residual levels and high nitrogen costs.

“However, higher fertilizer prices do mean that growers have more risk in order to pursue high potential returns. Good field husbandry is always important, especially early weed control, to optimize nitrogen use efficiency,” he says.

Banding better than broadcasting

When it comes to nitrogen placement for corn in Manitoba, Heard says subsurface banding generally works better than broadcast applications.

“Fall banding or spring pre-plant banding is preferred, but in-crop there are excellent opportunities to band nitrogen through injection or side dressing between the rows with anhydrous ammonia or liquid nitrogen. Those are very common in corn country,” he says.

Heard notes there are other options for corn producers, such as dribbling fertilizer on the soil surface, but they may come with a higher risk of nitrogen losses. In that case, he says, farmers may decide to make use of enhanced efficiency fertilizer products to reduce the risk.

Heard says Manitoba corn producers with farms on heavier soils tend to apply nitrogen in the fall, while many of those on sandier soils will apply nitrogen pre-plant or in-season to reduce the chances of nitrogen losses through leaching.

Split applications of nitrogen can be a good option for corn producers, he says. “Farmers I know who have some of the best nitrogen use efficiency are those that are doing some sort of banding at seeding or prior to seeding and then following up with in-season soil applications afterwards.”

However, there’s a danger in shorting a corn crop early, he warns. “We have seen the occasional yield penalty when people wait too long or withhold too much (nitrogen) at the beginning.”

Heard says a good rule of thumb for farmers opting to do split nitrogen applications is to apply around 20 to 30 per cent before or at seeding and the remaining 70 to 80 per cent in-season, as long as they start to side dress early when the crop is six inches tall. If farmers opt to delay the second application until the crop is waist high, then a 60/40 split is recommended.

Heard also cautions corn producers to make sure they spray their crops on time. He says studies in Wisconsin have shown delaying herbicide applications until the crop is four inches tall can mean an extra 30 to 50 pounds per acre of nitrogen is required to match corn yields produced by a crop that’s weed-free from the start.

“The longer you let the weeds grow, the greater the nitrogen penalty until, at some point, you can’t make up the yield even with higher nitrogen rates. The real message is to get those weeds sprayed or use a weed control program that controls the weeds early until you can get back in there with your second application,” says Heard.

Potassium and other key nutrients

Potassium is also essential for corn growth. Corn takes up a lot of it and the nutrient also boosts the efficiency of nitrogen fertilizer.

Heard says studies indicate the optimal potassium content in soil for most crops is about 100 parts per million, but for corn it has been shown to be 200 parts per million.

In Manitoba, clay or clay loam soils generally contain sufficient potassium for good corn growth, while sandy soils may not, Heard notes. In those instances, potassium application and placement are an important consideration for corn producers, he says.

“Banded potassium in corn is more effective than broadcast,” says Heard. “To achieve the same type of yield response that a banded application of potassium would give you, you would need to apply two times the rate as a broadcast application.”

The same applies to another key nutrient — phosphorus. Banded applications are also recommended, Heard says, and in Manitoba it’s typically carried out this way, either in the fall or during seeding time in the spring.

“It needs to be done before or while seed is being put in the ground because you don’t have the option to do in-season applications of phosphorus,” he says.

One thing farmers should be aware of is how growing corn after canola can lead to lower yields due to nutrient deficiencies of phosphorus and zinc, says Heard.

He explains that, in corn, symbiotic fungi or mycorrhizae are exploited by the plants to access phosphates and, to a lesser extent, zinc in the soil. The fungi go dormant with a canola crop, he says, and it can then take up to 50 days for the mycorrhizae spores to germinate and colonize the corn plant roots. Often, that’s too long to wait for the corn to start taking up phosphorus, and crop growth slows down as a result.

“Often, when we see … delayed crop maturity, the corn is wetter at harvest, it requires more drying, and there’s maybe a 10 per cent yield reduction,” says Heard.

“Studies were done here several years ago that found phosphorus placement banded close to the seed at a good rate is about the best you can do if you choose to grow corn after canola. But the easiest solution is to grow something else after canola.”

Heard points out sulphur deficiency is rarely a concern with growing corn after canola, but he says he has seen this occur with some Manitoba farmers who’ve displaced canola in their rotations with soybeans.

“Sulphur is usually liberally applied to canola, and the other crops in rotation do quite well on the residual amounts. But once canola disappears from rotation and the sulphur disappears, the other crops are likely to show some deficiency,” he says.

Heard says fortunately for farmers, sulphur deficiencies, like nitrogen deficiencies, can be remedied with supplemental in-season applications, as long as they’re properly diagnosed.

– Mark Halsall is associate editor for Grainews. His article was published in the May 10, 2022 issue.

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To control a weed like Canada thistle, it’s not a question of which option works best but what you’re hoping to achieve with your herbicide treatment.

For example, the following scenario is a common one. If a farmer has a canola field with a lot of perennial escapes, especially big, tough weeds like Canada thistle, is it better for that farmer to go with a pre- or post-harvest herbicide application?

We asked three weed control experts to weigh in on this question. Clark Brenzil is a provincial weed specialist with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, Kim Brown-Livingston is a provincial weed specialist with Manitoba Agriculture and Ian Epp is an agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada.

As they told us, there are benefits to both pre-harvest and post-harvest options, and a lot of it has to do with whether your main concern is doing what’s best for this year’s crop — or the next.

Eye on the prize, or eye on the future?

“Specifically, with canola, I think farmers really have to dial down and (determine) what is the purpose of this spray,” says Brown-Livingston. “Are you going after perennial weed control, or are you trying to do a harvest management spray?”

Epp agrees it’s an important question for producers to think about. “That’s always my take when I have a conversation with a grower,” he says. “Both (pre- and post-harvest treatments) will work. I think it really depends on which factors are the most important.”

If your primary objective is to clean up the field for the next crop, you need to kill as many Canada thistle plants as you can so they don’t reappear the following season. That’s best done with a systemic herbicide like glyphosate, which can be applied either before or after harvest.

However, if you’re a farmer hoping to maximize the yield potential of your current canola crop but have lots of ugly patches of Canada thistle littering your field, Brown-Livingston says your best bet may be to knock down those weeds with a pre-harvest glyphosate treatment.

“We are moving more and more toward straight cutting in canola, and any green weeds in a straight cut can slow you down (during harvest),” she says. “You end up losing a bit more seed when you’ve got all this green material going through the combine and then it ends up in the bin later on, which is a storage issue.”

Epp adds it’s not just about numbers, but how weeds are distributed in a field. While individual Canada thistle plants spread throughout the crop might not pose much of a problem for the combine, this may not be the case when they are quite large and clustered in patches. “Is it going to rumble through the combine, or is that going to cause all sorts of grief?”

Thistle life cycle

If your primary goal isn’t harvest management but perennial weed control for the following year, you must target Canada thistle at its roots to ensure an effective kill. Glyphosate works best against Canada thistle as temperatures cool down toward the end of the growing season and the weeds start forming rosettes.

“When Canada thistle plants transition to that (late-season) rosette phase, they are transitioning their life cycle from producing seed to producing storage roots for winter survival. Typically, that’s when the material in the plant goes from pushing upward in the plant to pushing down the plant,” Brenzil says. “When we want to control Canada thistle with something like glyphosate, we want that material going down in the plant.”

The best time to catch Canada thistle during this important phase often depends on when harvest will take place, and it’s at the root of a common dilemma for many farmers. Spraying pre-harvest means possibly missing the optimal window for a killing glyphosate application, while spraying post-harvest may not provide enough time for the cropped off Canada thistle plants to regrow.

Adequate coverage needed

If you’re treating Canada thistles with glyphosate post-harvest, you must wait for adequate regrowth before spraying, which usually takes four to six weeks.

“In a pre-harvest situation, you’ve got the entire plant sitting there and a lot of relatively healthy leaf material that’s there,” Brenzil says. “Regardless of how long you allow that thistle to regrow after harvest, you’re never going to have the same leaf surface area you did pre-harvest.”

Brown-Livingston says that’s why a pre-harvest glyphosate treatment will likely provide better coverage on the thistle itself.

“You need to get good coverage … on a perennial weed because you want to get as much (glyphosate) into the system as you can and get it working as well as possible,” she says, adding, with pre-harvest treatment, “we tend to get really good coverage.”

Something else to consider is cost. Brenzil points out a post-harvest spray will require three times more glyphosate to do the same job as a pre-harvest treatment. That’s because the application rate must be tripled compared with pre-harvest rates to get the same amount of glyphosate into the roots.

Brenzil says farmers can try to sharpen weed control by adding a tank-mix partner to a post-harvest spray, but either way, it’s likely to cost more for the same level of control than a pre-harvest application.

Tank-mix partners

Brenzil says one advantage of a post-harvest treatment is farmers have more tank-mix options to choose from. They can also add residual products, which can provide in-crop weed control for the following season.

Epp agrees. “There’s only a limited number of products that are registered for pre-harvest weed aid on canola, but once you get (to) post-season, there are a lot more options for adding in different modes of action,” he says.

“If you have fields with high populations of winter annuals, you’re not getting any of those with a pre-harvest (application). If you want to control them, wrapping winter annuals and perennials into a post-harvest application might be better than doing both separately.”

Killing frost

The time required for thistle regrowth after harvest also makes killing frost a factor. Canola producers contemplating a post-harvest glyphosate treatment must consider if there’s enough time before things freeze up for the spray to work. Generally, the farther north you go, the greater chance there is of earlier frosts.

Epp and Brenzil agree producers counting on a post-harvest glyphosate treatment to wipe out a weed like Canada thistle shouldn’t abandon hope the first time the mercury falls below zero.

“Generally, thistles are pretty hardy on the frost. They’re going to take light frost and keep regrowing. You just want to make sure you have actively growing material for the glyphosate to get to,” says Epp.

According to Brenzil, frost can actually provide a little added boost to a post-harvest spray.

“Sometimes a light frost can help a little bit with the uptake of glyphosate, so that’s something to keep in mind. If producers end up with a frost, they shouldn’t write off that post-harvest application right away,” he says.

Brenzil says Canada thistle can withstand frost better when there’s a gradual decline in temperatures below zero because that allows the plant to become somewhat acclimatized. “If you’ve got progression of frost like that, then thistles have been seen to survive upwards of a minus 10 frost.”

Mark Halsall is associate editor for Grainews. His article appeared in the June 1, 2021 issue.

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Alberta

On March 11, Alberta Agriculture and Fores­try Minister Oneil Carlier and Steve Blakely, CEO of Alberta’s Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC), announced that most of the province’s producers will benefit from lower crop insurance premiums for 2019.

“We strive to provide our clients comprehensive risk management products and an enhanced client experience,” Blakely said. “Declining premium rates for AgriInsurance… allow us to provide our clients with more value, allowing them to choose the right coverage to manage their risk for less.”

AFSC notes that although 2018 was challenging for growers in parts of Alberta, growing conditions have generally been good for the past several years. This has resulted in year-over-year premium reductions, and it’s also why yield coverages for many producers are up in 2019.

On average, 2019 crop insurance premium rates in Alberta are nine per cent lower than last year. This follows an eight per cent reduction in average rates in 2018.

AFSC’s 2019 spring price endorsement will include a 10 per cent deductible that was introduced in 2018. The incorporation of the deductible led to a 25 per cent decline in premium rates for protection on within-year commodity price declines of more than 10 per cent.

Alberta’s 2019 crop insurance program includes a couple of changes that have been introduced this year.

AFSC insurance product co-ordinator Jackie Sanden says cranberry dry beans are now insurable under production insurance, which will provide growers a yield guarantee based on their elected coverage level.

Sanden adds that organic producers are now eligible for insurance at the start of the year in the event that organic certification will be completed in the same crop year.

“They will need to provide a letter of transmittal or suitable pre-certification documents to AFSC by April 30 and also would need to provide their organic certification in the fall,” she says. “This provides producers coverage that reflects the production capability of the specialized organic management, as well as an insurance price indicative of the market value of their organic crop grown that year.”

Sanden says AFSC had paid out more than $428 million under its annual crop insurance programs for 2018 by the end of February.

She says AFSC is projecting just under 15 million acres of farmland in Alberta will be insured in 2019, bringing total crop insurance coverage to an estimated $4.6 billion.

Saskatchewan

In late February, federal Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Lawrence MacAulay and Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister David Marit announced several enhancements to Saskatchewan’s crop insurance program and said coverage levels in the province have hit a record high in 2019.

The Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation (SCIC) says average insurance coverage levels are increasing to $230 per acre this year, up from $216 in 2018. The SCIC cites improvements in crop production and higher-than-expected yields in 2017 as principal drivers for the coverage increase this year.

SCIC CEO Shawn Jaques says insured prices set for crops in Saskatchewan rose by just under one per cent on average in 2019 compared to last year, while the average premium rate for producers is down by an average of three per cent this year.

Jaques says due to coverage increases in 2019, the average premium per acre is up slightly this year. The average premium per acre has increased to $8.61 per acre, up from $8.41 in 2018.

The enhancements to Saskatchewan’s 2019 crop insurance program include:

• Higher coverage levels for tame and native grazing, which will better reflect the losses during a shortfall in forage production.
• The introduction of a new Corn Rainfall Program and changes in SCIC’s Corn Heat Unit Program, which will allow insured producers to cover their corn crops for as much as $300 an acre under either program or a combination of both.
• Extending the seeding window for fall-seeded cereal crops to the end of September.
• The addition of 55 new weather stations throughout the province, which will bring the total to 186.

Jaques says the additional stations will enhance the corporation’s data-collection system, adding that once the new stations are in place, all Saskatchewan farmers should be within 30 kilometres of a SCIC weather station.

“That’s quite significant,” he says. “It will mean (the weather network) should more accurately reflect what is happening on a producer’s farm.”

Jaques notes that many Saskatchewan producers faced weather challenges in 2018. There was too much precipitation in some areas and too little in others. Early snowfall also affected harvest operations in many parts of the province.

Jaques says total producer payouts under Saskatchewan’s 2018 crop insurance program are expected to reach $300 million, compared to $228 million in 2017. He adds that both figures are actually below average in terms of the amount of compensation SCIC typically pays to producers each year.

Manitoba

Federal Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Lawrence MacAulay and Manitoba Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler announced in January that AgriInsurance is expected to reach $2.8 billion on 9.5 million acres in Manitoba in 2019, the highest level of coverage on record.

According to the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC), which administers the AgriInsurance program in that province, insured dollar values or prices set for crops in Manitoba are up by an average of 1.7 per cent in 2019. That, combined with an average increase of 2.3 per cent in probable yields this year, means there’s a four per cent increase in coverage for insured producers in 2019.

MASC’s premium rates are down by an average of 7.1 per cent in 2019 compared to last year, due to low 2017 losses being added to the premium rate calculation as well as the growth of the AgriInsurance reserve funds.

David Van Deynze, vice-president, innovation and product support for MASC, points out there’s been a drop in average premium rates in each of the last three years.

“When that sort of thing happens, it means generally speaking that producers had some good years,” he says.

The ministers also announced several enhancements to Manitoba’s AgriInsurance program for 2019. These include:

• The introduction of separate yield coverage for hybrid and open-pollinated fall rye, which will ensure coverage that better reflects the crop’s productive capacity.
• A higher dollar value for seed potatoes to account for their higher cost of production and higher market value.
• Expanding the list of crops eligible for organic insurance to include barley, field peas and hemp grain.
• Higher dollar values for organic crops as a result of an update in how the values are determined.
• Livestock and forage producers will benefit from a change in the way poor-quality forages are adjusted for claim purposes, which will result in payments that better reflect actual losses due to low quality.
• More online services offered by myMASC, the corporation’s digital gateway for producers.

Van Deynze notes the AgriInsurance enhancements were largely based on farmer feedback.

“We take quite a bit of pride in trying to meet with almost all the producer groups that are working in Manitoba,” he says, adding farmers are asked what improvements they’d like to see in the crop insurance program.

“We don’t necessarily get all the improvements in any given year because there’s some budget restraints and those kinds of things that sometimes prevent that, but we certainly work towards making the improvements where it makes sense to do that.”

Van Deynze says it was a difficult harvest season for many Manitoba farmers due to challenging weather conditions last fall, “but at the end of the day, producers were able to successfully harvest almost all of their acres.”

Van Deynze says as of February, payouts under Manitoba’s 2018 crop insurance program had reached $70 million.

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Kim Shukla, executive director of the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance, says the increase reflects the growth since hemp production was approved by Canadian regulators in 1998.

“We’ve seen years where there have been some market corrections that have taken place, but overall there’s been a steady upward trend,” Shukla says.

Most of Canada’s industrial hemp is grown in the three Prairie provinces. According to Health Canada figures, Saskatchewan led with more than 56,000 acres in 2017, followed by Alberta with almost 45,000 acres and Manitoba with 30,000.

Elsewhere, under 7,000 acres of industrial hemp were planted in Ontario and Quebec in 2017, while the Maritime provinces planted just over 750 acres, and just under 250 acres in B.C.

Shukla estimates there are now between 300 and 500 farmers growing hemp commercially in Canada. She says one reason for the growth in hemp production in this country is that “more and more farmers are understanding that there’s a good economic return in the crop. It also offers diversity in their planting, another cropping alternative.”

Jeff Kostuik, director of operations for central Canada, the U.S. and international for Saskatoon-based Hemp Production Services, the largest exporter of Canadian hemp food products to Asia, says thanks in part to new crop genetics, Canadian growers have enjoyed rising yields in recent years. “Because there’s been very good economic return on hemp,” Kostuik says, “we now have some of Canada’s best farmers growing it and they’re treating it as a high-value crop.”

Kostuik notes that average hemp yields now range between 800 and 1,000 pounds per acre in dryland farming areas. He adds that in irrigated areas, such as in southern Alberta, hemp yields can rise to almost double that.

Most contracted for seed

Canadian hemp is cultivated almost exclusively for its seed, which is used to produce hulled hemp seeds, hemp oils and hemp protein powders. Currently, only a small fraction goes into the production of hemp fibre used for such things as “hempcrete,” a biocomposite material used for construction and insulation.

“Our business in Canada has been built primarily on hemp as a food product. That’s just the way our industry started from years ago,” says Clarence Shwaluk, director of farm operations for Fresh Hemp Foods Ltd.

Shwaluk says about a dozen Canadian companies process hemp for food products. He says Fresh Hemp Foods, which is the parent company for Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods and Hemp Oil Canada, is the largest hemp food processor in Canada. It relies solely on contract growers for its raw material.

“We do go east a little bit but the majority of what we contract is cropped in the Prairies,” Shwaluk says.

Shukla says there is some hemp grown within Canada for the open market. “If I were to guess, I would say about five per cent. There is a risk entailed in that because then the producer needs to find his own end market.”

Kostuik says on-farm contract prices for hemp seed generally ranged from $0.76 to $0.85 per pound in 2017. He notes that contract prices were higher for organically produced hemp seed, which is a growing segment of the market, ranging from $1.80 to $2 per pound in 2017.

Prices seen lower in 2018

Both Kostuik and Shwaluk anticipate on-farm contract prices set by Canadian hemp processors will be down in 2018 after the bumper crop of 2017.

“That was a bit of a surprise to me,” says Shwaluk. “I didn’t expect (acreage) numbers that high, but we are continuing as an industry to try to balance the supply and demand.”

As of early December, Fresh Hemp Foods had not yet set its contract prices for 2018. According to Shwaluk, the company was still assessing a number of recent trends, including low-priced whole hemp seed offered by China.

“We are also seeing production in the United States under the Industrial Hemp Pilot Program with prices well below what our Canadian industry prices have been,” he says. “Although Fresh Hemp Foods has no intentions of sourcing production outside of our Canadian contracts, the lower international prices are making customers consider their options for supply. The Canadian industry is in a long supply position in general, so the combination of supply and price factors will have an impact on our local markets. It is very likely that contract prices will drop, but to what extent is still uncertain.”

Kostuik notes that the emergence of new players in the global hemp market is having a substantial impact on prices. He says China and some Eastern European countries traditionally focused on the hemp fibre market but are now turning their attention to hemp food. They can charge lower prices due to lower costs of production, Kostuik adds, and that’s “put a lot of pressure on the Canadian price also.”

Shukla says Canada’s hemp industry relies heavily on exports, with only about 10 per cent of Canadian hemp utilized domestically. “Exports are absolutely integral to the market. Currently, the United States is our largest importer and we’re reliant on that marketplace,” she says.

Statistics Canada figures show that of the approximately 64 million kilograms of Canadian hemp products exported in 2016, more than 36 million went to the U.S.

Shukla notes that a key objective of the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance is to help broaden Canada’s export markets. Encouraging developments include the recent approvals of hemp food products in Australia and New Zealand. “So that’s a new market opportunity for us.”

The industry also sees untapped potential in the organic hemp food market. Kostuik, who estimates that organic accounts for around eight to 10 per cent of hemp food production in Canada, sees plenty of room for growth.

“I think hemp is well-suited to the organic market in the fact that it is a very fast, aggressive-growing plant that can outcompete weeds. But at the same time, it is a high nutrient user, which can make it a challenge to grow it in a tight rotation,” Kostuik says.

Fibre future

The hemp fibre market is another area that holds some promise. Shukla says some dual-purpose varieties, which can be used to produce both hemp food grain and hemp fibre for commercial purposes, are being grown in Canada, “but that’s a very niche and experimental market at this point in time.”

Kostuik points to the recent openings of two hemp-fibre processing facilities in the Parkland region of Manitoba as a sign that things are changing. Both the Plains Hemp and Hemp Sense plants are located near Gilbert Plains, Man.

Shwaluk feels hemp fibre production will be an important part of Canada’s hemp industry in the future. “We don’t have a large fibre-processing industry yet (but) I think that will come with time.”

Shwaluk and Kostuik both say that a strong hemp fibre market would enable Canadian hemp producers to get more value from their crop.

“The grain has been moving the industry forward, but as fibre becomes more evident across the Prairies or across Canada, that’s going to provide another revenue stream,” says Kostuik.

Another potential revenue source for Canadian hemp producers is a cannabinoid known as CBD. The chemical is being studied as a treatment for numerous medical conditions and does not contain THC, which produces the mentally intoxicating effects associated with cannabis.

Shukla says right now, it is illegal for CBD to be harvested or extracted from industrial hemp in Canada. But she says this could change when the federal government unveils new regulations for industrial hemp (which contain very low concentrations of THC) as part of its rollout of Bill C-45, Canada’s new cannabis law.

Shukla says the legalization of CBD extraction from hemp would provide growers with an excellent opportunity to utilize their entire crop.

Shawluk agrees. “I’ve seen some of the research on what CBD can potentially do, and it does show some promise of being a very good market.”

“Having whole plant usage will create more opportunities for farms to harvest and collect parts of the plants that were previously prohibited,” Shawluk says.“It creates some new uses for industrial hemp, and I think it would only be good for our growers.”

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Preventing new diseases like dickeya and keeping old adversaries like late blight in check are important reasons why growers subscribe to farm biosecurity, which can be defined as a set of management practices designed to protect farm properties from the entry and spread of harmful diseases, pests and weeds.

Developed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Canadian Potato Council and other industry members, the Producers Guide to the National Farm-Level Biosecurity Standard for Potato Growers was released in 2012 to help producers develop biosecurity plans for their farms.

“I think generally speaking the material that was in there really captured the majority of the practices that people were already implementing in one way or another,” says Tracy Shinners-Carnelley, director of research and quality enhancement with Manitoba’s Peak of the Market. She helped draft the guide as a member of the Potato Sector Biosecurity Advisory Group.

“By working on the initiative it was a great way to pull all the information together into one reference document,” Shinners-Carnelley says. “It also provided a tool for growers to be able to look at the level of biosecurity that they were already doing on their farm and identify some opportunities as to how they could improve or enhance that.”

Potato growers industry leaders

Shinners-Carnelley considers potato producers as the leaders in biosecurity within Canada’s ag industry, and says that’s been driven by necessity.

“We can never sit back on our heels and say we know… what diseases and pests are out there. It’s a dynamic industry and, generally speaking, the risk of pathogens and damage that they can do on a farm is always changing, whether it’s the evolution in the strains of late blight or new bacteria like dickeya that can be associated with blackleg,” she says.

Keith Kuhl, president and CEO of Manitoba’s Southern Potato and president of the Canadian Horticultural Council, was also involved in drafting the biosecurity guide.

Kuhl isn’t sure how many potato farmers have referred to the handbook since its release but he suspects it’s not a huge number. Kuhl believes more could be done by some provincial organizations to raise awareness within the industry of the guide and the importance of biosecurity planning.

Part of the challenge, he adds, is that farmers can feel overburdened at times by all the paperwork involving issues like food safety, sustainability and the environment, and they may tend to focus on plans that have shorter-term objectives as a result.

However, Kuhl believes most potato growers have some level of awareness of biosecurity and follow practices to safeguard their farms, even if they don’t have prescribed biosecurity plans in place.

He believes biosecurity is important, not only as a way to help growers protect their investment, but also to protect future generations of farmers from disease, pest and weed threats. “Part of being sustainable is having a good biosecurity plan for your farm,” Kuhl says.

This article was originally published in the 2017 issue of the National Potato Guide.

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