CWB faces more cuts He’s the tops Staff shrinks, management salaries under review » PaGe 21 Sheffield goes to the world’s » PaGe 20 SERVING MANITOBA FARMERS SINCE 1925 Vol. 20 $1.75 May 17, 2012 manitobacooperator.ca Wheat advances slow, says Interlake farmer Canola association says application errors are to blame By Allan Dawson co-operator staff T he wheat cash advance that once took hours to obtain through the Canadian Wheat Board is taking weeks through the Canadian Canola Growers Association, Fisher Branch farmer Bill Uruski says. “It has been a nightmare,” Uruski said in an interview from his farm May 4. Uruski, who farms with his son Barclay, said Barclay applied for an advance April 1 and still hadn’t received it more than 30 days later. “As a result we’ve been forced to seek a line of credit from our credit union,” he said. The wheat board started issuing cash advances for wheat in 1957. 29 the federal government announced the canola growers’ association would administer advances “so that wheat, durum and barley farmers have access to the Advance Payments Program without disruption,” when the board loses its monopoly marketing powers this Aug.

See ADVANCES on page 6 » Scenes like this one are becoming less common on Manitoba farms. Photo: jeannette greaves StatsCan report shows more canola, less wheat Latest five-year agriculture census snapshot shows gross farm revenue up with expenses falling slightly By Daniel Winters co-operator staff Publication Mail Agreement 40069240 T he numbers are out and they show canola is beating wheat, the cost of farming and farm incomes have improved marginally, and the provincial cattle herd is down by nearly a quarter. Canola area surpassed spring wheat area for the top spot among field crops, up 44.3 per cent to 3.3 million acres since the last survey in 2006, while spring wheat fell 13.2 per cent to 2.6 million acres. But Doug Chorney, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, figures that late seeding dates amid last spring’s floods may have distorted the acreage figures in canola’s favour, simply because it was the few last-ditch options available.

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“Canola’s been a successful crop for producers,” said Chorney, but he added that last year’s efforts in seeding from airplanes and broadcasting behind heavy harrows may have played a role. “Although canola’s been the best crop, guys still grow a lot of wheat.” Operators spent an average of 83 cents in expenses, excluding depreciation, for every dollar of receipts in 2010, about three cents less than they spent in 2005.

Lower interest rates Chorney said that lower interest rates may have accounted for some of that gain, because energy, fuel and fertilizer have all marched steadily upwards. “The cost of carrying debt and operating loans has been greatly reduced, and that’s a big portion of farm expenses,” he said. “Our farmers could be more efficient in operating their farms. We have bigger equipment, but it’s also more expensive, so it’s a bit of a trade-off there.” Oilseed and grain farms accounted for 49.6 per cent and pig farms 19.2 per cent of the 2010 total gross farm receipts.

At 16.7 per cent, the number of farms, at 15,877, marked a sharper drop since 2006 in Manitoba, compared to a 10.3 per cent decrease nationally. Manitoba accounted for 7.7 per cent of Canada’s 205,730 farms in 2011. Farms are getting bigger, with fewer farmers, and they’re getting older, the StatsCan numbers show. See STATSCAN on page 6 » PLUS: Riled up over freight rate raise » PAGE 5 2 The Manitoba Co-operator May 17, 2012 INSIDE on the lighter side LIVESTOCK Public pastures under local control Two community pastures in Manitoba are already on their own 12 CROPS ©thinkstock Flea beetles spread their reach Flea beetle populations surge despite better seed treatments 17 FEATURE Is this an omen for humans? Look what happened to the dinosaurs Washington /Reuters I Time for a new disease plan Federal authorities rethink efforts to control chronic wasting in elk 8 CROSSROADS Choosing water soft pathways A community studies how to be frugal with a precious resource 4 5 8 10 Editorials Comments What’s Up Livestock Markets Dinosaur gas and the greenhouse effect n a major new climate finding, researchers have calculated that dinosaur flatulence could have put enough methane into the atmosphere to warm the planet during the hot, wet Mesozoic era.

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Like gigantic, long-necked, prehistoric cows, sauropod dinosaurs roamed widely around the Earth 150 million years ago, scientists reported in the journal Current Biology May 7. And just like big cows, their plant digestion was aided by methane-producing microbes.

“A s i m p l e m a t h e m a t i cal model suggests that the microbes living in sauropod dinosaurs may have produced enough methane to have an important effect on the Mesozoic climate,” researcher Dave Wilkinson of Liverpool John Moores University said in a statement. “Indeed, our calculations suggest that these dinosaurs could have produced more methane than all modern sources — both natural and man-made — put together,” Wilkinson said. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with as much as 25 times the climate-warming potential as carbon dioxide.

This gas is enough of a factor in modern global warming that scientists have worked to figure out how much methane is emitted by cows, sheep and other plant-eating animals. The inquiry raised questions about whether the same thing could have happened in the distant past. A mid-size sauropod probably weighed about 44,000 pounds (20,000 kilos), and there were a few dozen of them per square mile (kilometre), the researchers found. They reckoned that global methane emissions from sauropods were about 520 million tons per year. Before the fossil fuel-intensive Industrial Revolution took off, methane emissions were roughly 200 million tons annually; modern ruminants, including cows, goats, giraffes and other animals, emit between 50 million and 100 million tons of methane a year.

22 Grain Markets Weather Vane Classifieds Sudoku 11 15 26 30 READER’S PHOTO ONLINE Visit www.manitobacooperator.ca for daily news and features and our digital edition. (Click on “Digital Edition” in the top right corner.) At our sister site, AGCanada.com, you can use the “Search the AGCanada.com Network” function at top right to find recent Co-operator articles.

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Drought cuts production Pigeon breeding comes home to roost Pigeons leave the wrong impression about local breeding » PaGe 36 But it also affects demand » PaGe 5 august 16, 2012 SERVING MANITOBA FARMERS SINCE 1925 Vol. 33 manitobacooperator.ca $1.75 Bale grazing may require rethink, say researchers “Green” practice of in-field winter feeding may not make the Beneficial Management Practice list By Daniel Winters co-operator staff / Whitewood W Dena McMartin and Dave Barrett, researchers from the University of Regina, explain the results of water quality testing from a bale grazing site on the Pipestone Creek watershed. Photo: Daniel Winters inter feeding cattle on pasture has long been pitched to ranchers as one of the best things they can do to help the environment and their own bottom line. But new research on the Pipestone Creek watershed in Saskatchewan shows that it may not be as green as earlier suggested. “It’s controversial only because you have to be very careful where you do it,” said Barbara Cade-Menun, an environmental scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and SPARC. Cade-Menun, the lead researcher at the Pipestone Creek Watershed Evaluation of Beneficial Management Practices (WEBs) project in the “knob-and-kettle” pothole country south of Whitewood, Sask., said that analysis of run-off water from bale grazing sites has found extremely high concentrations of nutrients and harmful bacteria. “When we set this up, there were a lot of people who were hard-core believers that this was a great practice,” she said, as she guided a tour group through the WEBs site’s various research points that were installed on three area farms in 2008.

See BALE GRAZING on page 6 » Buyers down south “desperate” for hay Hay production this summer varies from farm to farm, region to region By Daniel Winters co-operator staff Publication Mail Agreement 40069240 D emand for hay from drought-stricken livestock farmers south of the border may drive up the value of this year’s crop, exporters say. Landon Friesen, who along with his father Phil and brother Derek run Southman Alfalfa Producers near Crystal City, said that severe drought in the Midwest has sent U.S. Customers scrambling for hay. “We’ve had guys come up from South Dakota and Wisconsin who looked at our hay and said they wanted the whole shed,” said Friesen. “It’s unbelievable right now.” He recently sold some highquality dairy hay with a relative feed value score of 207 for $260 per short ton in their yard, well above last year’s price of $180$200/ton.

“We’re looking at about $1.20 per RFV point right now,” he added. His contacts in Saskatchewan have said that farmers there are “baling everything and sending it south,” and he expects that local beef cattle operations will try to hold on to whatever hay they’ve been able to put up.

Beef hay buyers looking for alfalfa to grind with rations don’t typically start sniffing around the market until later in the season, he added. Ninety-nine per cent of Southman’s sales are going south where many buyers are “desperate” for hay, said Friesen. Apart from the drought, record-high commodity prices have exacerbated the dwindling supply situation as more forage growers on both sides of the border tear up alfalfa to seed corn and beans. Last year, they hayed 2,000 acres, but this year they have only 1,000. First and second cuts yielded well, and the third cut looks good, too. “It’s been pretty ideal,” he said.

Darren Chapman of Chapman Farms near Virden, said that he has been getting a few more calls than normal for this year’s hay production, which has been “average” so far. “A lot of the guys in the centre of the drought in the Midwest have told all their customers in the dairy or horse hay market that they aren’t going to be able to supply them like they usually See HAY on page 6 » 2 The Manitoba Co-operator August 16, 2012 INSIDE on the lighter side LIVESTOCK Grass-fed genetics Forage-based herds start with the stock 33 CROPS Diseasekilling rays Scientists test microwaves for seed-borne diseases 17 FEATURE Cashing in on high prices A Siberian cow went to great heights to escape courtship Is this year Manitoba’s turn? Cow which was not in the mood ambled to the top storey of a Siberian apartment building to escape a courting bull, and had to be led back down by firefighters, authorities said. The cow was discovered bellowing on the top of a stairwell in the five-storey building in the village of Lesogorsk last month, with the probable cause of the Reuters 24 CROSSROADS Readers’ view How Co-operator readers see harvest 4 5 8 10 Editorials Comments What’s Up Livestock Markets Or was she just playing hard to get? A cow’s distress an amorous bull at the bottom.

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“The bull was very loving and had paid excessive attention to the cow during the summer grazing,” the Irkutsk regional branch o f R u s s i a’s E m e r g e n c y Situations Ministry said in a statement. “Trying to escape from him, the cow ran into the building and climbed up to the fifth storey,” it said. It took firefighters about three minutes to get the cow downstairs by roping its horns and pulling, according to the statement, which suggested members of the crowd that gathered should have done the job themselves. “When we arrived there were dozens of people outside the building. There were members of the local administration, police and many bystanders,” it quoted fire station shift chief Yevgeny Smirnov as saying.

“In principle, they could have done without us.” 12 Grain Markets Weather Vane Classifieds Sudoku 11 16 26?? READER’S PHOTO ONLINE Visit www.manitobacooperator.ca for daily news and features and our digital edition.

(Click on “Digital Edition” in the top right corner.) At our sister site, AGCanada.com, you can use the “Search the AGCanada.com Network” function at top right to find recent Co-operator articles. Select “Manitoba Co-operator” in the pull-down menu when running your search.