For those producers, farming means searching for something that may require a little added effort on management or marketing.

But even within that group, some choices are more popular, like identity preserved (IP) soybeans, edible beans and winter canola, each with its strengths and drawbacks, including contract premiums, longer rotations and soil health benefits. 

Buckwheat would rarely be first on anyone’s list. Like flax or ginseng, the crop is small compared to corn, soybeans and wheat with roughly 35,000 acres grown across the country. According to the federal government’s Census of Agriculture in 2016, Ontario produced 10,622 acres of buckwheat, an increase of 68 per cent over 2011’s reported production. Although Manitoba was Canada’s leading producer 30 years ago, production there dropped to roughly 5,600 acres in 2017. 

Now, though, we’re seeing a change in demand. In the past, most Canadian buckwheat went to Japan, where millers ground it into flour for soba noodles. More recently, though, demand for healthier diets and gluten-free has kept more buckwheat closer to home, especially in the eastern half of the continent, encouraging production in Ontario and Quebec. 

There are also numerous challenges with trans-Pacific shipping right now, especially with containers at a premium. That can cause delays which in turn can adversely affect the quality of the flour milled from buckwheat grains. If stored for too long for the Japanese market, the flavour and colour of the soba noodles can be diminished.

The other factor discouraging Asian demand comes from China, one of the world’s largest buckwheat producers alongside Russia, Brazil, Poland, France, Japan, South Africa and the U.S. Since China sells the grain at roughly a third of the price of North American production, it’s a strong competitor in Japan, despite its poorer quality and blending of foreign material.

Here at home

For Henry Denotter, growing buckwheat grew into a six-year odyssey after he began looking for a crop to follow winter wheat, trying to get a return like double-cropped soybeans following a cereal. 

“We planted no till with an air seeder mid-July after wheat,” says Denotter, who farms near Kingsville, Ont. “The first two years, we spread the straw cut from the wheat at 10 inches. It worked but the buckwheat was slow coming up and we had a lot of trash to re-combine at harvest.”

Denotter then skipped planting buckwheat because it was a dry summer. That proved to be a mistake as it rained early that fall and would have been sufficient to make a crop. 

Present protocol

The practice Denotter has found most successful involves cutting wheat at two to four inches in a windrow, then baling and removing the straw. Denotter likes to spread the chaff out from under the windrow as best he can. Then he sprays a burn-down using either glyphosate or glufosinate, which he says works well in the midsummer heat. 

“Then we plant with the air seeder at no-till rates that vary depending on seed size and germination of the seed but about 50 lbs. per acre,” he adds. “If there’s some moisture, the seedlings will be up in four days with the first flowers in 20 days.”

According to a specialty crop growers guide from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), Denotter’s numbers are in line with ministry rates of 50 to 65 kg/ha (44.6 to 58 lbs. per acre). Planting depth is recommended at roughly 1.5 to 2.5 inches with row spacing at 7 to 7.5 inches.

The OMAFRA guide also recommends planting as a midsummer crop as this helps emerging seedlings avoid frost events in spring or fall. Optimum soil temperatures at planting are 5 C or higher with the seed germinating at 7 C, and an optimal growing temperature of 20 C. 

Currently, there only five varieties registered for production by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), including AC Manitoba, Koban, Koto, Mancan and Manor. The OMAFRA guide states there have been no variety trials conducted in Ontario, but keep in mind the document was last updated in 2012.

Aside from the opportunity for marketing the grain and its simultaneous use as a cover crop, Denotter likes how buckwheat flowers attract bees. 

“It’s definitely a pollinator-friendly crop and can easily flower for six weeks,” he says, adding that buckwheat honey is a premium product. “There aren’t a lot of flowers out in August so the bees will stay with the field, and I do put signage up that it’s a pollinator-friendly crop.”

Pre-harvest

After roughly 10 weeks, Denotter either desiccates the crop or waits for a killing frost. Combine with care and cut it low, he advises. Any wheat straw that’s re-cut will be in the sample. 

Once harvested, a grower is left with a hard black nut-like shell with bright white powder inside. As a broadleaf plant, it’s not seen as a grain-and-straw crop while the seed says it’s a nut. 

“There are also moisture standards,” says Denotter. “Markets are for bird feed, as cover seed, for milling and pet food filler. It’s not an expensive product except if you want to buy good seed.” 

Growers new to the crop should also pay attention to where the crop’s planted because there’s likely to be volunteer growth for a year or two. Timely straw removal and field conditions were the biggest challenges affecting Denotter with his crop in 2021. 

“I usually plant 150 to 200 acres but this year I have 50,” he says. “It was planted late but there are still benefits if it doesn’t yield. The dollars you get from the straw can go back on the field in a controlled fertilizer application.”

Aside from the marketing end of production — and the potential revenue to be derived — the longer-term benefits to soil health and the attraction to bees are two important positives Denotter cites for venturing into the crop.

Researchers with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Charlottetown, PEI and Agassiz, B.C., are also studying the use of buckwheat as a root-zone repellant for various species of wireworm. Growers on P.E.I. are using it as a rotational or cover crop in potatoes and have seen reductions in wireworm numbers, while researchers are testing buckwheat straw in horticultural crops like cucumber and radish. Although the initial studies are complete, researchers are hoping to attract funding for continued work. 

For more information:

• Specialty Cropportunities (OMAFRA)
• Can buckwheat be the new top crop on the rotation block? (AAFC)

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The federal government on May 1 announced “modernized” beer standards under Canada’s Food and Drug Regulations (FDR) — the rules laying out the requirements to be met by a product labelled, packaged, sold and advertised as beer in Canada.

The FDR updates are expected to allow brewers to “develop new products by using new ingredients and flavouring preparations while maintaining the integrity of beer,” the government said in a release, while offering more “clarity on what constitutes standardized beer.”

For instance, the new rules clarify the term “carbohydrate” and clarify that herbs and spices are allowed. Apart from cereal grains and flavouring preparations, the rules also allow for addition of “honey, maple syrup, fruit, fruit juice or any other source of carbohydrates.”

The updated rules also remove listed processing aids from the beer standard, making it more consistent with most of the 300-plus food standards covered in the FDR which don’t list processing aids, such as antifoaming agents used during manufacturing.

“A modernized beer standard allows Canadian brewers to develop a new range of products that meet the tastes of our consumers,” Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said in the government’s release.

But the FDR will now also require beer labels to declare food allergens, gluten sources and/or added sulphites. Flavouring preparations will also have to be declared, such as, say, “beer with blueberry flavour.”

Such a declaration must either be included in the list of ingredients — which, as with all standardized alcoholic beverages, is voluntary for beer — or be added as a statement, such as, say, “Contains: Sulphites.”

Those requirements “will give consumers assurance that the beer they drink will not pose a risk to their health because of a food allergy or food sensitivity,” Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor said in the same release.

The updates also set a limit of four per cent residual sugar — that is, the sugars left in the product after fermentation is completed. The limit is meant to “distinguish standardized beer from sweeter malt-based beverages.”

‘Distinct’

The updated standard is also expected to reduce “duplication” in the FDR as it removes the standard for ale, stout, porter and malt liquor — which was “virtually identical” to the standard for beer — to have just one standard for all beer styles and types.

The changes to the FDR must be applied starting Dec. 14, 2022. Until then, the government said, Canadian brewers and beer importers “must follow either the previous or the new requirements.”

The requirements for compositional standards under the FDR only apply on products traded interprovincially or imported into Canada.

The new rules “will ensure beer is treated as distinct from other beverage alcohol categories for decades to come,” Luke Harford, president of trade association Beer Canada, said in the sam release. “We are pleased to see that the changes permit the use of new ingredients and recognize beer as a beverage alcohol product that is low in sugars.”

According to the government’s impact analysis statement, the FDR’s beer standards “had not previously undergone a major amendment for at least 30 years” while the industry “had recently been seeking the use of more ingredients than was permitted by the compositional standard.”

Some small craft breweries, the government said, “may experience difficulty in complying with the requirements because of limited financial resources.”

Also, the government granted, some products “may not meet the modernized beer standard and will have to be sold as unstandardized alcoholic beverages and not be represented as beer.”

Also, the government said, the FDR updates could potentially impact trade with other countries that don’t have the same beer compositional standard. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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They’re being urged to apply now for help under a cost-sharing program that’s aimed at commercial beekeepers trying to control diseases which may only be available this year.

“There is a maximum of $3,500 in the program,” Rheal Lafreniere, Manitoba Agriculture’s provincial apiarist told 117 honey producers attending an event June 16 at Steppler Farms. “In order to access this 50-50 cost share (program) you’d have to spend $7,000. You don’t have to spend the whole amount. You can just target those specific areas that are most important to you.

The aid is through Assurance: Animal Health and Biosecurity for Bees, under the Ag Action Manitoba program, funded by the federal and Manitoba governments.

The program encourages honey farmers to look at their hive health management practices and improve biosecurity, Lafreniere said.

Starting this December bee­keepers will have to get their antibiotics through a veter­inarian.

“This program allows you to set up a vet-client relationship with a veterinarian and cover half the costs to do so,” he said. “There is a maximum. It’s $500, but this allows you to have that communication with a vet, have them come over to your farm and start developing a protocol or a procedure of how you want to use antibiotics on your farm.”

The program also can be used to offset some of the cost of sampling bees for antibiotic-resistant American foulbrood spores to see if an operation can be weaned off antibiotics, Lafreniere said.

Funds for that service are capped at $1,000, he said.

Money is available for replacing old brood comb with new disease-free comb.

Funding for that is capped at $2,000.

“The qualifier there is if you are already active in the program under previous programs like Growing Forward 2 you would not be eligible under Ag Action Manitoba,” Lafreniere said. “But if you haven’t you would be eligible for that.

“One other catalogue item that’s on that list — if you want to get more diagnostics on the farm there is money to buy a microscope and if there’s training available that costs you money you could offset those costs similarly with this 50-50 cost share.”

To qualify for the program beekeepers must have 50 or more hives, be registered with Manitoba Agriculture, have a Manitoba Premises Identification Number, and have participated in a biosecurity workshop.

Two biosecurity workshops are being held Aug. 28 and 30, in Winnipeg (Agricultural Services Complex, 545 University Cres., Manitoba Room: Large EOC (basement) and Brandon (Agriculture Extension Building, 1129 Queens Ave., Room: Classroom A), respectively. Both meetings run from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m.

For more information contact Rheal Lafreniere at 204-945-4825 or rheal.lafreniere@gov.mb.ca.

For more on Assurance: Animal Health and Biosecurity for Bees visit the Manitoba Agriculture website.

This article was originally published in the June 28, 2018 issue of the Manitoba Co-operator.

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Schram and Stozek originally established Fresh Roots Farm as a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) business selling mainly chicken and vegetables to local and Winnipeg customers.

Growing vegetables for the CSA was labour intensive, and they couldn’t achieve enough margin to make it feasible to continue marketing that way. So, the biggest change for them has been ditching the CSA and concentrating on direct marketing beef and sheep as well as honey from their apiaries.

“We decided that sheep and cattle were the livestock choices that we wanted to focus, on and honeybees as well,” says Stozek. “We’ve expanded our apiary considerably. It’s to the point where it’s our main enterprise.”

Urban deliveries worthwhile

Their network of customers has grown steadily as they have worked hard on marketing and committed to regular urban deliveries. With their customers willing to pay a premium price for their grass-fed beef, lamb and raw honey, it has made the monthly delivery runs worthwhile, especially as they also supply 15 Winnipeg retailers with honey. “We have to restock our stores for honey once a month or so, so we decided it was a good fit for continuing to direct market our meat as well,” says Stozek. “We also have an online ordering system where customers can pre-order meat, honey or whatever else they want, and we meet up at a central location in Winnipeg where everybody comes and picks up their orders.”

Their farm land base has grown over the past five years. They have bought a quarter section from Schram’s parents, and also rent an additional quarter section. With the escalation in land prices over the past few years, the couple had to think carefully before purchasing the quarter, but decided it was feasible partly because of their plan to concentrate on higher value, pasture-based enterprises and use their holistic management training to maximize the productivity of their land resource.

“We have gotten better at looking at efficiencies and what works for us,” says Schram. “We only have so much time and so much labour, so we’ve focused on how we can best use it to be more profitable and not burn out.”

“We decided to focus on honey production because it doesn’t have a big land overhead,” adds Stozek. “That’s been a major part of our cash flow to help pay for the land. It represents shorter-term cash flow where it’s not all tied up in bills and overhead.”

They have also focused on improving the soil quality on their land, which has already increased the carrying capacity of their land by about five additional head of cattle per year. “It’s about regenerating organic matter, bringing back the soil microbiology that makes a healthy soil, and all of the things that come from a healthy soil,” says Schram.

“We’ve focused on increasing productivity with our cattle and sheep through things like higher stock density, adaptive grazing, and different ways to overwinter our livestock on the hay field, which means we are using every opportunity to maintain nutrients on the land. That’s giving us more grass, increasing capacity, and allowing us to have more animals that will help provide more profit in our business.”

Making the most of what they have

Currently, Schram and Stozek sell about half their cattle to the conventional beef market, and half as direct-marketed, grass-fed beef. With the demand for grass-fed beef constantly growing, they plan to switch to that market completely in the future, so are working with some better genetics for feeding and finishing on grass.

“It was great for our cash flow to rely on the conventional cattle market, especially as prices were higher over the past few years, but now that we see the demand for the grass-fed beef, and how we enjoy the process of raising them, we hope to get deeper into that in the future,” says Stozek.

One thing that has helped them become successful is using the resource base they have in the way that makes the most sense for them. “We’d be crazy to have anything but working livestock on this type of land. It’s not meant for anything else,” says Stozek. “What makes our honey marketable and successful is getting floral diversity into the nectars. There are all kinds of tame and native perennials such as wild flowers, alfalfa, and clover that give us the consistency and texture that everybody just loves. We may not get as much productivity as if we had our bees in the middle of a canola field, but people love the flavour, and it’s something that’s unique.”

The couple are also more active on social media, which they use to help build relationships with customers who can’t always take the two-and-a-half hour trip out to the farm.

“We are doing a lot of social media with pictures and videos, and little interviews, and I think it’s helpful in putting some reality into what we do,” says Stozek. “We try not to focus on just the cute, cuddly stuff; we try to give people a good dose of as much reality as we can through our information sharing.”

Their farm is definitely more successful and profitable than it was five years ago, not just because of the improvements they have made to the land, but also because of the awareness of their customers.

“There’s a lot of people now that are more educated and tuned in to what’s happening in the country and they’re looking for what we have, so it hasn’t been so much about us educating people as just being there to provide what they want,” says Schram. “There’s more and more people coming to us every month who are interested in what we’re doing and what we have.”

Still, financial challenges, particularly with cash flow, remain very real — especially when the grass-fed beef program requires animals to be kept on-farm for as long as two years before providing income.

Accessing credit — especially as new farmers starting out — has its challenges. “It’s very much a ‘chicken and egg’ scenario. If you don’t have the equity to borrow against, it can be quite difficult to gain access to credit,” says Schram, who adds they were able to make some informal leasing arrangements with family to help them build their initial livestock herd. “We feel fortunate to now have access to credit at low interest rates, which has helped us in the initial capital investment years. Compared to the interest rates our parent’s generation were facing 30 years ago, this is a good time to access financing.”

Despite the challenges, Schram and Stozek have never regretted their choice to farm, and for Stozek, the pride and sense of accomplishment he felt the moment their first calves hit the ground was all it took to reinforce the belief that he’d made the right decision.

Schram’s “ah-ha!” moment came with one of the first deliveries to Winnipeg, she says. “I realized how important the process and relationship of selling food directly to the families who would be eating it was, and the excitement of both parties to be a part of a local food economy.”

Becoming a part of the community

Being an accepted part of the community, and helping it to grow and thrive has always been important to Schram and Stozek, who admit that when they first started out with their CSA enterprise there were quite a few people rolling their eyes. That has changed as conventional farmers and others in the area have grown to understand the value of what they do — and that they know a thing or two about providing good, healthy products.

“I think just by doing this long enough, and showing people that we’ve had some success, and we’re not all that different in a lot of ways, it has validated the way we do things in people’s eyes because at first, the way we produced and marketed our products was quite foreign to most people in our community,” says Stozek. “Now, we sell products to people in our community, and it means a lot to us when people come and stock up with a bunch of honey as their Christmas gifts. There’s something to be said for providing food to our neighbours and friends, and it really helps to strengthen those relationships.”

Facing the challenges ahead

In future years Schram and Stozek want to build a farm that is profitable, and more resilient to some of the effects of climate change that they feel will become one of the biggest challenges facing agriculture.

“There are going to be lots of vulnerabilities with weather, be it drought or excess moisture… the more organic matter we can get into the soil, the less vulnerable we’ll be to those swings,” says Stozek. “Hopefully at some point, there will be a proactive enough policy scheme where we might get rewarded for some of those efforts. There’s not currently enough incentive for people involved in agriculture to keep their shelter belts for the role that they play in carbon sequestration and biodiversity, or to maintain sloughs that help hold back water. It’s almost the opposite; there are incentives to get rid of them at this point. The things that motivate us to do what we do are just trying to minimize risk and vulnerability, and increase enjoyment and profitability.”

Schram and Stozek’s biggest change is yet to come, as they are expecting their first child in the fall. “Another continuing goal, and we have not mastered it yet, but I think now we are starting a family we need to get a lot better at, is just taking more time for us,” says Schram. “That’s a big part of holistic management, is taking time for family and friends and not working yourself to the bone.”

“A lot of what we’re doing is focusing on what’s working in terms of generating financial success,” Stozek acknowledges. But, he says, they haven’t changed their basic strategy. “If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, you’re not going to give it the kind of energy that it deserves.”

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