Christian Brault has never felt alone in his no-till journey. Between him and a handful of neighbouring farmers who have also been learning how to adopt no-till, there are no secrets, and thanks to their club agronomist, no one ever has to repeat anybody else’s mistakes.
Brault runs a dairy and cash crop operation in Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague, Quebec, 30 minutes from Ontario. He pays $840 per year to be part of the 45-member Club agroenvironnemental du Surot, one of the province’s 83 agrienvironmental advisory clubs.
“When you’re with a club, you know someone will help you all the way through when you’re experimenting something new,” says Brault, who is also the president of his club.
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With all the information that the club’s independent agronomist has gathered from other club members, Brault says the chances of making serious mistakes are dramatically reduced, whether he’s tweaking his fertilizer rate or making a major switch in tillage programs.
Agri-environmental advisory clubs were started in Quebec in 1993. Partly, it was a respose to government cutbacks. As in the rest of Canada, the Quebec government had started to phase out agronomist services and farmers found themselves having to depend on agronomists hired by seed and fertilizer dealers for expert crop advice.
Today, 28 per cent of Quebec’s producers — about 8,300 farms — are part of a soil and crop advice club. While most clubs focus on cash crops, others specialize in organic production, apples, cranberries and other niche production. Half of the province’s dairy farmers are members and 44 per cent of all cultivated land is enrolled for independent, club-agronomist advice.
Some say clubs were created with a strict focus on the environment, and not as a reaction to cuts in the number of govenment agronomists. But others are blunt: clubs offer advice that goes way beyond protecting soils and water.
In a typical club, new members first learn how to better use available manure. Second, they find out how to get good yields with less chemical fertilizer. “This part is pretty quick. It’s good for the environment and it makes farmers save money,” says agronomist Michelle Breton, an advisor with Club Consersol Vert Cher, near Montreal.
New club members often save $10,000 to $20,000 in fertilizer right from the start. Brault says farm input salespeople are not as much to blame as old farming mentalities that can be hard to change.
“The advice we get is really focused on the crop’s needs. It’s not linked to any sales,” Brault says. With their club agronomist’s recommendations in hand, farmers are free to shop for the best-priced fertilizer.
Club advisors go on to suggest crop rotations. They scout for crop diseases and they recommend what to spray and how to spray it. After a few years, members may venture into no-till or no-input crops.
“We talk a lot about the environment, but most of our advice will have a positive impact on the farmer’s wallet,” says Chantal Foulds, a club agronomist who is now heading a provincial co-ordination team of advisory clubs.
Members all join on a voluntary basis, Foulds says. Word of mouth has worked wonders. Club memberships underwent a major boom in 1998 after new environmental regulations kicked in. According to Foulds, new members have nonetheless opted for a preventive approach rather than reacting negatively to new regulations.
Members turn to their agronomist for the paperwork and advice required for their phosphorus balance report, their agri-environmental support plans (PAAs) and their agri-environmental fertilization plans (PAEFs).
Club agronomists don’t report to the government, Foulds insists. They report to a farmer board of directors that keeps a close eye on the club’s finances.
From 10 per cent back in 1993, farmers now pay one-third of club costs. Typical annual membership fees are $550. That is matched by both the provincial ag ministry and the federal government. Club members may choose to pay more should they want more service than the usual 30 hours included in the annual fee.
The government is getting good bang for its buck, Brault says. This can easily be demonstrated in a number of tables that clearly show, for example, how club members throughout Quebec have reduced their fertilizer rates and how they have improved their phosphorous balance over the years.
“We believe that we have a responsibility to protect the environment, but what we protect goes beyond the farm,” Brault says, justifying government subsidies.
Foulds says the Quebec government seems quite comfortable with the current financing formula, in which farmers pay one third. “In all our meetings, this is never questioned.”
Such support does not exist in Ontario. In 2002, Francophone farmers in Eastern Ontario formed a club called Groupement de gestion agroenvironnementale de l’Ontario. Heritage Canada and the Agricultural Management Institute provided startup funds, but that money ran out in 2004.
Ontario’s only agri-environmental advice club has been kept alive thanks to its agronomist accepting to work part time. No new members are accepted despite regular requests for help in complying with environmental regulations.
In Quebec, clubs keep operating with a great level of autonomy. Some have three or four agronomists and as many as 350 members. Staff and board members have access to regular training and information sessions.
Farmers may also join any of 23 agriculture management groups (groupes conseils agricoles) for farm management advice. Members pay about $1,000 a year and groups get no government subsidies.
Management group advisors — most are agronomists — help members with budgeting, farm transfers, expansion plans and farm equipment decisions. Farmers get anonymous profitability rankings that tell them where they stand within their group and on which aspect of their business they could improve.
All this advice breaks isolation between farmers and allows them to remain at the forefront of agricultural innovation, Brault says. “Whatever project we may have, we know there will be technical support at hand.” CG
