On June 7 the federal government announced more than $1.6 million over four years, which will fund multiple genetics-related projects.

Collecting data on beef seedstock operations is a challenge, says Myles Immerkar, chief executive officer of the CAA. Farms are getting larger, and with more cattle on pasture the time to measure and gather data from those animals becomes a more difficult task.

Some don’t have the basics, such as scales, or scales in the right place, he says.

Testing technologies, including artificial intelligence, camera and computer vision systems, will help to find ways to less expensively gather data from cattle production systems.

The Holstein Canada partnership will help the CAA to better understand traits like greenhouse gas emissions and health.

Holstein breeders have worked for years to develop genetic indices around animal health and reproduction, and also now have access to an index that relates to methane production.

“We’re starting to explore new traits, environmental traits that have profitability impact on our members, and those are hard to collect for our members,” says Immekar.

There are traits the CAA has collected that Holstein Canada is interested to understand, he says.

The dairy and beef sectors have been brought closer as greater numbers of dairy cows are bred to beef bulls as dairy farmers breed their top cows to sexed semen.

There’s nothing in the project that targets beef on dairy growth, he says, but the fact that many dairy-beef calves are raised in confinement can mean easier data collection, compared to beef calves running on pastures.

The Angus association knows half of the traits and information on one side of a beef-dairy crossbred and Holstein Canada understands the other half.

“So there’s certainly an opportunity for us to learn from each other with animals that are crossbred. We’re definitely looking at beef and dairy cattle and evaluating them, but for our own individual purposes.

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Chief executive officer Justine Hendricks announced the funding at Canada’s Farm Show June 18, saying she was thrilled to announce the partnership.

“The accelerated breeding program brings together cutting edge science and practical agricultural knowledge. It will bring new crop varieties and livestock genetics to producers and other stakeholders much faster, which will stimulate rural economic growth and increased revenue,” she said.

Hendricks said sustainability is a key part of FCC’s new strategy, and GIFS’ research into just how sustainable Saskatchewan and Canadian crops are compared to the rest of the world highlights farmers’ good work.

“They found that a bushel of wheat grown in Saskatchewan would need to be on a boat and circle the world 3.5 times to reach the same carbon footprint as some of its global competitors, and that’s something to be really proud of,” she said.

GIFS CEO Steven Webb said the funding will help Canada “get back on the productivity gain timeline.”

The FCC program will deliver innovative products faster with better yields, disease resistance and quality traits, he said.

Genomic selection, bioinformatics, speed breeding and computational simulations are already proven to increase the rate of genetic gain for crops and livestock. Webb said the dairy industry has used these technologies for more than 20 years, while corn and soybean breeders have used them for more than a decade.

He said this means breeders at GIFS will get the same access, and that will boost productivity and reduce the time to access new varieties.

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Application forms are expected to be available via Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. (SCIC) “in the coming days” for funding “to help offset extraordinary costs of feeding livestock to maintain the breeding herd in Saskatchewan.”

Precipitation has remained well below normal in much of Saskatchewan, particularly in western regions, contributing to “a substantial moisture deficit and hindering recovery of pasture and forage ranges,” the province said.

The provincial funding pledged Monday will provide eligible producers with up to $80 per head “as soon as possible” to maintain breeding stock for beef cattle, bison, horse, elk, deer, sheep and goats. SCIC, on its website, said more information “will be available in the coming weeks.”

The funding will be available based on receipts or appropriate documentation for “extraordinary expenses for the purchase of feed or transportation of feed or livestock,” the province said in its release Monday.

Meanwhile, the province said, it “continues to work quickly with the federal government to jointly examine how AgriRecovery could help respond.”

For its part, the federal government said in a separate release Monday that work with drought-affected provinces to finalize AgriRecovery programming is “urgently progressing,” and that it’s already “worked quickly” with Saskatchewan as well as Alberta and British Columbia on joint AgriRecovery assessments.

The feds on Monday announced their initial list of areas eligible for the livestock tax deferral provision for 2023, including 96 RMs and other municipalities in western Saskatchewan.

“We appreciate the province stepping up and providing their portion of the AgriRecovery payment,” Keith Day, board chair of the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association, said in the province’s release Monday. “We look forward to a similar announcement from the federal government to provide their funding to ensure our producers get the help they need through these challenging times.”

“We are confident that the federal government is working together with the province to assess how they can provide additional support through AgriRecovery and look forward to seeing what that much-needed assistance will be,” Ray Orb, president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, said in the same release. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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A Scottish company, Dyneval, has created a new semen analyzer that measures a wider range of concentrations of semen than previous testing methods. This will allow veterinarians, beef and dairy producers to have more control over semen quality.

The Dynescanl analyzer is also highly portable, making it more accessible to large farms, veterinarians or other livestock service providers.

“We say to the industry don’t treat all the semen the same. You spend a lot of money making sure you look after the cows in fertility and heat detection. In the same way, you need to be looking at the lifetime of semen,” says Tiffany Wood, CEO and co-founder of Dyneval.

She was at the Ag In Motion farm show recently as part of the Global Agri-Food Advancement Partnership (GAAP), a private agri-food investment incubator.

Co-founder Dr. Vincent Martinez developed a novel technique for measuring the motility of microorganisms from intensity fluctuations in video.

Other technologies use algorithms that track cells frame to frame, which means they don’t track at as high or low concentrations.

“Liquids with bits in it,” says Wood, and one of the most obvious “liquid with bits in it” would be semen.

Bull semen motility varies dramatically, especially given how much it is processed and how long it has been stored.

Sexed semen has become popular as a way to choose with high probability whether a breeding will result in a male or a female offspring. The challenge is that the fertility of sexed semen isn’t as high because it has been processed.

Wood says that the industry is learning more about insemination timing for sexed semen. An example of sexed semen she had evaluated with the machine showed that motility started to decline after 90 minutes. That means that sample would need to be used quickly. If that is understood using the Dyneval testing, then that bull’s sexed semen can be managed differently.

Many beef ranchers already evaluate a bull’s semen before breeding season. The Dyneval system would allow that to be done closer to the farm.

On a dairy farm, Wood says the system would allow a farmer to evaluate the quality of the semen they have received or have in storage, resulting in better insemination timing.

She says that calculations for a 900-cow herd she visited recently showed that the $17,000 machine would pay for itself within a year in improved insemination timing and conception rate.

“In the UK, a number of veterinarians  are using it, helping with pre-breeding parameters on dairy farms.”

There are also applications along the dairy semen supply chain for more easily checking quality, she says.

The unit is available now directly from Dyneval, but the company is in Canada looking for distribution partners.

The system currently measures bull and sheep semen, with equine and pigs coming soon.

–Updated March 15, 2024. Clarifies that GAAP is not affiliated with the University of Saskatchewan.

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Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Tuesday released the initial list of designated regions in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan where livestock tax deferral has been authorized for 2022.

Those include most of southern Alberta up to around Stettler and Olds; nearby rural municipalities in western Saskatchewan; most of agricultural Manitoba; and some parts of west-central Saskatchewan southwest of Saskatoon (full list and map below).

Regions eligible so far were identified based on weather, climate and production data in consultation with industry and affected provinces, the federal agriculture department said Tuesday. Criteria include forage shortfalls of 50 per cent or more, whether caused by drought or excess moisture.

In areas designated for the deferral in a given tax year, eligible producers who had to cull breeding herds by at least 15 per cent may defer part of the income from those sales until their next non-designated tax year.

If the herd was cut by at least 15 per cent — but by less than 30 per cent — then 30 per cent of income from net sales can be deferred.

Where a producer reduced a breeding herd by 30 per cent or more, 90 per cent of income from net sales can be deferred.

Thus, in the 2023 tax year — or in the next tax year in which the designation is lifted off a specific municipality — the deferred taxable income from those sales can be at least partially offset by the cost of reacquiring breeding animals.

The ag department said Tuesday it would keep monitoring conditions across Canada to see if more designations are needed.

Some farm and ranch organizations had already been calling for deferral designations for the 2022 tax year to be made as soon as possible.

“Many areas of western Saskatchewan are still dealing with unprecedented drought, which is leading to herds of cattle being sold,” Scott Owens, a farmer in the western RM of Eldon and vice-president with the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS), said in such a statement in early June.

“If they haven’t already, many producers are running out of feed, and the pastures have not recovered from a lack of moisture last year and during the winter.”

By mid-November 2021, drought designations for the deferral for the 2021 tax year had reached all of Saskatchewan and northwestern Ontario, all of agricultural Alberta and Manitoba, and much of agricultural British Columbia. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

Initial list of designations, 2022

Alberta: Calgary, Taber; counties of Cardston, Cypress, Foothills, Forty Mile, Kneehill, Lethbridge, Newell, Paintearth, Pincher Creek, Rocky View, Starland, Stettler, Vulcan, Warner and Wheatland; the municipal district of Willow Creek; and “special areas” 2, 3 and 4.

Saskatchewan RMs: Antelope Park, Biggar, Buffalo, Chesterfield, Deer Forks, Enterprise, Eye Hill, Fertile Valley, Frontier, Grandview, Grass Lake, Happyland, Harris, Heart’s Hill, Kindersley, Maple Creek, Mariposa, Marriott, Milden, Milton, Monet, Montrose, Mountain View, Newcombe, Oakdale, Perdue, Pleasant Valley, Prairiedale, Progress, Reford, Reno, Rosemount, Round Valley, Snipe Lak, St. Andrews, Tramping Lake, Vanscoy and Winslow.

Manitoba: municipalities of Alonsa, Argyle, Armstrong, Bifrost-Riverton, Boissevain-Morton, Brenda-Waskada, Brokenhead, Cartier, Cartwright-Roblin, Clanwilliam-Erickson, Coldwell, Dauphin, De Salaberry, Deloraine-Winchester, Dufferin, Elton, Emerson-Franklin, Fisher, Gimli, Glenboro-South Cypress, Glenella-Lansdowne, Grahamdale, Grassland, Grey, Hanover, Harrison Park, Headingley, Killarney-Turtle Mountain, Lakeshore, Lorne, Louise, Macdonald, McCreary, Minto-Odanah, Montcalm, Morris, Norfolk-Treherne, North Cypress-Langford, North Norfolk, Oakland-Wawanesa, Oakview, Pembina, Portage la Prairie, Prairie Lakes, Rhineland, Ritchot, Riverdale, Rockwood, Roland, Rosedale, Rosser, Souris-Glenwood, Springfield, St. Andrews, St. Clements, St. François Xavier, St. Laurent, Stanley, Ste. Rose, Tache, Thompson, Victoria, West Interlake, West St. Paul, WestLake-Gladstone, Whitehead, Woodlands and Yellowhead; city of Winnipeg; Division No. 17, Unorganized; and Division No. 18, Unorganized (east part and west part).

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Data released by Statistics Canada on Wednesday showed 2017 farm equity climbed to $535.3 billion, up $34.6 billion from $500.75 billion in 2016.

“I think it points to an industry where we’ve come off of some good times over the past five-plus, 10 years, and we’re continuing to see a little bit of slowing on some perspectives,” said Craig Klemmer.

“But also, I think there is still optimism in the industry.”

While he projected a slowdown in growth, he said farm asset values will continue to appreciate.

According to the StatsCan report, farm asset value rose 6.9 per cent compared to the year previous, to $632.2 billion nationwide in 2017, mostly due to higher farmland values.

Farm real estate climbed by 7.8 per cent to $480.1 billion and now accounts for more than three-quarters of total farm asset value.

A recent FCC report showed farmland values rising by 8.4 per cent, so the two reports taken together indicate that investors are seeing opportunities, Klemmer said.

“I think, overall, where we’re sitting right now, is that we’re seeing a very balanced, stable market, where assets are increasing, revenue is increasing and debt is increasing, in kind of a fairly stable trajectory at this point.”

Market disruptions and trade concerns will affect farm revenue and need to be monitored, he said. As well, the Bank of Canada has said it will raise interest rates this year, which will increase the costs of borrowing and could stress farmers’ abilities to pay down debt.

But the farm debt-to-asset ratio points to a healthy industry, he added. That ratio reached 15.3 per cent in 2017, according to the StatsCan report, slightly above the five-year average of 15.2 per cent.

“So, I think there are some pretty good stories,” Klemmer said.

Nationwide for 2017, farmers recorded assets of $632.2 billion with liabilities of $96.9 billion.

Manitoba farmers recorded assets of $49.984 billion with liabilities of $8.981 billion; Saskatchewan farmers, $114.436 billion in assets and $14.663 billion in liabilities; and Alberta, $173.365 billion in assets and $22.375 billion in liabilities.

Farm inventory values also rose, contributing to the overall increase in asset values.

The total value of crops, livestock, inputs and poultry increased six per cent from 2016, to $47.3 billion. It marked the first year inventory values have increased since 2014.

Farm inventories of market livestock and poultry increased the most, rising to $8.7 billion, a 7.2 per cent increase from 2016. The increase was credited mainly to higher prices for calves, which rose 6.4 per cent, and steers, up 5.2 per cent.

Breeding livestock inventory values increased 5.2 per cent to $13 billion, on the back of higher prices for beef cows (up 4.8 per cent) and milk cows (up 4.1 per cent).

Higher year-ending stocks for canola and soybeans were cited as the main reason for the increase in crop inventory values.

Soybean inventory value rose 44 per cent, while canola rose 9.5 per cent, compared to 2016.

Those numbers point to the growing popularity and the high value of those two crops, Klemmer said.

Many farmers may be holding crops in their bins longer, waiting for better prices, he added.

Canola and soybeans made up 86.5 per cent of the 2016-17 increase in crop inventory value and 39.8 per cent of the total crop inventory values for 2017.

— Terry Fries writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Glacier FarmMedia company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.

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The federal government on Tuesday announced a second list of drought-designated regions where the livestock tax deferral provision will be allowed, along with the areas of Ontario, Quebec and Alberta designated in the initial list in November.

Also, the government said, its “ongoing analysis” shows a final list of designated regions will be needed for the 2016 tax year. That list is expected to be released as soon as it’s authorized.

In Alberta, the City of Calgary, County of Newell and Mackenzie County are now also designated, while in B.C., four census subdivisions (as per the 2011 census) have been added to the list, including Kitimat-Stikine A, B and D and Skeena-Queen Charlotte E.

In Ontario, newly designated areas include the cities of Belleville, Kingston, Niagara Falls, Peterborough, Port Colborne, St. Catharines and Welland; the towns of Fort Erie, Greater Napanee, Grimsby, Lincoln, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Pelham; the townships of Frontenac Islands, Leeds and the Thousand Islands, Loyalist, Madoc, South Frontenac, Stone Mills, Tyendinaga, Wainfleet and West Lincoln; the municipalities of Centre Hastings, Trent Hills and Tweed; and Haldimand County.

In Quebec, the municipality of Duhamel is now also designated, as are the Nova Scotia municipalities of the counties of Annapolis and Kings and of the districts of Argyle, Barrington, Chester, Lunenburg, Shelburne, West Hants and Yarmouth.

Low moisture levels resulted in “significant forage shortages” for livestock producers in all affected areas, the government said Tuesday, and one option for producers to manage feed supplies is to reduce their breeding herds.

“This tax deferral will help producers manage the impacts of the drought, and to focus on rebuilding their herds in the coming year,” Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay said in a release.

The tax deferral provisions allow livestock producers in prescribed regions to defer portions of their 2016 sale proceeds of breeding livestock, until the next tax year. Producers can request the tax deferral when filing their 2016 income tax returns.

The intent of the deferral is to reduce the tax burden associated with the sale, as the cost of replacing the animals at least partially offsets the deferred income.

To be eligible for the deferral, a producer’s breeding herd must have been reduced by at least 15 per cent. If the breeding herd has been reduced by at least 15 per cent, but less than 30 per cent, then 30 per cent of income from net sales may be deferred.

Where the herd has been reduced by 30 per cent or more, however, 90 per cent of income from net sales can be deferred.

Proceeds from deferred sales are then included as income in the next tax year. If an area qualifies for a drought or excess moisture/flood designation in consecutive years, producers may defer sales income to the first year in which the area is no longer designated.

The deferrals are requested if impact on a designated area is deemed “significant,” defined as forage yields of less than 50 per cent of the area’s long-term average. — AGCanada.com Network

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Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay on Tuesday released the federal government’s initial list of municipalities designated for the 2016 deferral.

In Alberta, those areas include Clearwater, Lethbridge, Mountain View, Red Deer, Rocky View, Vulcan and Wheatland counties; the municipal districts of Bighorn, Foothills, Pincher Creek, Ranchland and Willow Creek; the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass; and the Banff (No. 9) and Kananaskis improvement districts.

Further east, the list covers southern and eastern Ontario farms around 14 cities including Toronto, Ottawa and Hamilton; 10 municipalities; 15 towns; 48 townships; and the village of Merrickville-Wolford.

In Quebec, the list covers much of the Laurentides, Outaouais and Monteregie regions and includes farmland around the cities of Gatineau, Lachute, Mirabel and St-Jerome plus 46 municipalities, 10 towns, seven townships and the Parish of Brebeuf.

The tax deferral provisions allow livestock producers in prescribed regions to defer portions of their 2016 sale proceeds of breeding livestock, until the next tax year. Producers can request the tax deferral when filing their 2016 income tax returns.

The intent of the deferral is to reduce the tax burden associated with the sale, as the cost of replacing the animals at least partially offsets the deferred income.

To be eligible for the deferral, a producer’s breeding herd must have been reduced by at least 15 per cent. If the breeding herd has been reduced by at least 15 per cent, but less than 30 per cent, 30 per cent of income from net sales may be deferred.

Where the herd has been reduced by 30 per cent or more, however, 90 per cent of income from net sales can be deferred.

Proceeds from deferred sales are then included as income in the next tax year. If an area qualifies for a drought or excess moisture/flood designation in consecutive years, producers may defer sales income to the first year in which the area is no longer designated.

The 2016 designation will be the second in a row for affected areas of Alberta, as all but the province’s far northeast received drought designations for 2015.

Preliminary designations are usually made on the basis of spring moisture and summer rainfall, supplemented with estimates of forage yield, while final decisions and other adjustments are made when all forage yield information is available, usually in December.

The deferrals are requested if impact on a designated area is deemed “significant,” defined as forage yields of less than 50 per cent of the area’s long-term average. — AGCanada.com Network

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Amendments to the Agricultural Marketing Programs Act (AMPA), made last February as part of the former Conservative government’s omnibus Agricultural Growth Act, have made regulatory changes possible for the 2016 Advance Payments Program (APP) year, the government said Friday.

The regulatory changes allow new commodities, including “specific classes” of breeding livestock — including cattle, hogs, sheep and goats — to qualify for advances this year if the animals are intended for sale during the production period, the government said.

Except where regulations are made to allow specific types or classes, the AMPA rules out current and former breeding animals as “agricultural products” for the purposes of the APP.

The changes made via the Agricultural Growth Act also allowed for “limited expansion” of the APP into other eligible commodities and products via regulation in the future. The Tories last summer had proposed regulations allowing APP coverage for breeding cattle and hogs as well as rabbit, red deer, boar, elk and products such as antler velvet and bees.

The regulatory changes announced Friday also now allow producers seeking advances under the APP to now use more types of security, such as private insurance or other risk management products, to get the maximum available to them.

Previously, APP loans have been limited to the dollar value of a farmer’s coverage under federal/provincial business risk management (BRM) programs such as AgriStability and AgriInsurance.

The change is meant to help farmers who under that rule couldn’t get their full eligible advance, due to “shortfalls in their pledged security,” but are able to buy other insurance that covers risks similar to those covered by the BRM programs.

The maximum advance available through the APP remains 50 per cent of the average market price for a given product in a farmer’s area, up to $400,000. The federal government pays the interest on the first $100,000.

The government on Friday also pledged “simplified access” to APPs for companies with multiple shareholders.

Third-party guarantors, such as individuals or banks, are to be allowed to post guarantees for larger corporations, co-operatives or subsidiary companies, instead of each individual in the organization having to provide a personal guarantee.

The changes for 2016 also include a new “streamlined” application process that’s meant to reduce paperwork for returning APP clients, the government said.

“These changes to the (APP) will mean improved cash flow for farmers, helping them meet their financial obligations, while at the same time reducing their paper burden,” Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay said in Friday’s release.

The APP program year begins in April. — AGCanada.com Network

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