January 2004
The perils of politics for farm leaders
Solicitor General Wayne Easter is just the most recent former farm leader to face frustration and disillusionment in federal politics. Yet others seem prepared to throw their hats in the ring. Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Bob Friesen is willing to take the riskby BARRY WILSON
Try as they might, scientists have not been able to come up with an insecticide that can control the political bug.Maybe they haven't even tried. Maybe they shouldn't, since political discussions, decisions and risks, for all their flaws and frustrations for practitioners and recipients alike, are what keep the country progressing and what define us.
Still, the political bug and the ambition it injects into the blood stream with its bite can be deadly, particularly to people with a strong view of policy right and wrong before they join the system.
The thought is inspired in part by the plight of Wayne Easter, a former National Farmers Union president, a Council of Canadians charter member, a left-leaning Canadian nationalist and a Prince Edward Island farmer with a life-long skepticism about the Americans.
Easter, an interesting thinker and dedicated activist long considered a New Democrat, surprised many by winning a hotly contested Liberal nomination in 1993 and running successfully for Parliament three times.
During the first nine years, he successfully walked the tightrope between supporting the government as a bright and energetic Liberal MP while criticizing policies, including the performance of the Agriculture Canada bureaucracy. He was a credit to the political class.
Then came a 2002 scandal involving P.E.I.'s lone cabinet minister and Easter's elevation as Solicitor General. Gone was the ability to publicly criticize. Gone, by all public appearances, was his ability to influence the policy performance of any department but his own.
Then late last year came the nadir -- the critic of bureaucrats and the skeptic of Empire America found himself defending Canada's role in having a Canadian citizen shipped by the Americans to Syria, where he was tortured. Easter, presumably reading notes prepared by his RCMP and spy agency bureaucrats, even defended the American right to break international law in the case. Opposition or backbench MP Easter or private sector Easter would have been properly outraged.
Power and responsibility reduces the ability to stand firm and increases the need to compromise. Easter's defense of the indefensible was painful to watch. On the other hand, power does offer the possibility of making real change instead of criticizing from the outside.
That must be the allure which has Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Bob Friesen and former Manitoba farm leader Don Dewar interested in running for the Liberals in the next federal election. Ontario soybean sector leader Liam McCreery is also rumoured to be contemplating a role in Liberal politics.
It may be that power would give these skilful farm politics players a better soapbox from which to preach. However, more often than not, history suggests that farm leader aspirations to make things better rarely result in anything but frustration in the broader picture of political resource allocation.
For all of the money he has pried out of the system, there are few who judge Lyle Vanclief a great agriculture minister. Does anyone doubt that he imagined he would do much more and win respect for it? Can anyone remember what impact former Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Harry Pelissero had during his term as a Liberal MPP between 1987 and 1990?
A bite from the political bug can instill ambition and optimism. It also can produce debilitating side effects. BF
Barry Wilson is a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery specializing in agriculture.
© copyright 2003 AgMedia Inc..
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Milk price increases run up against the tariff ceiling
Any cuts in the tariffs on dairy imports would sharply reduce the potential for higher milk prices. And a further increase in the Canadian dollar could hurt cheese pricesby DON STONEMAN
How much more can dairy farmers expect to get for the milk they produce?Milk producers have complained for some time that their returns are about $7 per hectolitre less than the calculated Cost of Production (COP) formula indicates. Dairy Farmers of Canada has a commitment from the Canadian Dairy Commission to close that gap by 2006, covering the costs for the most efficient 50 per cent of producers.
Can a higher milk price be attained, and sustained, without attracting foreign products over the top of the tariff walls? The answer, according to Dairy Farmers of Ontario economist Phil Cairns is that it can "for a while," with some caveats.
Cairns thinks the proposed $7 increase is about the limit for milk price increases, given the volatility of world prices and exchange rates. There is room for about a $14 increase for milk for cheese manufacturing, but only because world dairy prices and the exchange rate on the dollar between Canada and the United States are currently favourable. The world price for cheese is about $2,000 US a tonne, a fairly high level because production in both Australia and the European Union suffered in drought years. It's not uncommon for the cheese price to dip by $300 in a year, Cairns says.
The currency exchange rate is critical. A 10-cent rise in the value of the Canadian dollar to 85 cents US would be the equivalent of a $200 US drop in the price of cheese, Cairns says.
There is also the key issue of the tariff itself. If Canada had to cut tariffs on dairy product imports by 15 per cent, Cairns says milk prices could only be increased by $5.95. That $7 increase in the price of milk for cheese would have to be rolled back by about $1.05 for the industrial milk portion of their milk cheque. Because the returns that farmers get are a blend of industrial milk and higher priced fluid milk, Ontario producers would see 67 cents less per hectolitre for all the milk that they ship.
And don't forget, Cairns says, that there is pressure to reduce tariffs by a lot more than 15 per cent. World Trade Organization chief Stuart Harbinson had proposed cutting tariffs by 60 per cent last March.
By the way, the $7 price differential between milk production costs and returns takes into account the "absence" of full compensation for culled cows because of the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) crisis, according to briefing documents prepared for the fall Dairy Farmers of Ontario policy conference. Low prices for cull dairy cows, caused by the BSE crisis, are estimated to have cost the industry the equivalent of $2-$3 per hectolitre of milk produced.
Has the hope of ever-increasing milk prices accounted for the sharply increased value of quota? "You sure as heck can't explain it with milk prices," Cairns says Quota prices have just about doubled in 10 years, while the farmgate return for milk is up 17.4 per cent and has been negated by general inflation rates of 19 per cent. Reduced interest rates - down 28.6 per cent -- have helped some, Cairns admits. He thinks lenders are more aggressive in lending to farmers for quota than they used to be. BF
© copyright 2003 AgMedia Inc..
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Better than average corn yields expected to offset costs from wind damage and late planting
The knockdown cost farmers more in fuel and labour at harvest time, but yields are expected to rise to 120 for 2003-2004, compared to 113 in the previous yearby CLIFF EVANITSKI
The inland sweep from an eastern seaboard hurricane in September along with a couple of other 100 km/h wind storms have played havoc with corn fields across Ontario, knocking down large portions of the crop."I'd say that between those three storms we ended up with 50 percent of our corn down," says farmer Butch Underhill, who harvested nearly 1,200 acres of corn this past fall at the eastern end of Elgin County. "The deer weren't even in the corn this year because there was nothing to hide in." Underhill attributes a large part of the corn lodging to heavier cobs and weaker stalks and Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food (OMAF) corn specialist Greg Stewart agrees.
"Some varieties have better stalk strength than others and certainly that was evident this year," says Stewart, who believes other factors also contributed to the collapse of the corn crop. "I don't think anyone can really say, 'Well, it was a disease. You know, we had a massive stalk rot problem or we had a massive root system problem and it's all associated with that.' I don't really buy that. We had significant lodging in the Hurricane Isabel storm in September on stalks and roots that were absolutely disease-free, clean, green and solid."
Stewart said that, while each region had different factors contributing to the corn collapse, the late planting of most of this year's crop after May 19 was more likely the common factor in the knockdown across Ontario.
"Temperatures affect how much the stalk lengthens and so late planted corn is generally taller," says Stewart. "That generally puts the ear higher up on the stalk. We had a very stress free July with good moisture and good temperatures -- nothing too extreme. That generally translates into larger ears, a large number of kernels on a stalk that was a little bit longer than normal. Ears were a little higher off the ground. I think those things also contributed to putting the stalks somewhat at risk."
The Ontario Corn Producers' Association (OCPA) has projected that 1.75 million acres of corn will be produced in Ontario for 2003-2004, with an average yield of 120 bushels per acre -- up from 113 bushels per acre a year ago. "Yeah, we had a nice crop of corn out there, " says Stewart. "But when you've got to fill those (ears) and you don't get started on that till Aug. 5, it increases the stress that the plant is under in trying to move starch to the ear. And generally it will rob it from the stalk if it has to."
Corn stalks weren't the only ones under stress this season. "The last three weeks (of harvest) cost me three times more than when we started because we were only picking at a third capacity," notes Underhill. "Our ground speed was slower and therefore I used three times the labour and three times the fuel." Underhill estimates that he spent $500 per day repairing his two Case IH combines.
"It was just something you couldn't keep up to, like gathering chains, cutting knives and rocks, "said Underhill. "We put a rock through one. I haven't seen the bill yet, but they're telling me around $10,000."
Even though the difficult harvest has resulted in better than average yields, corn prices are expected to remain constant. "The loads coming off the field are fine. It's just that, when you scale them, the weight's not there," said George Vermeersch of VanMeer Farms in Norfolk County. "Lower test weight goes with cooler summers. The more heat you can get for corn, the better your test weight is." Vermeersch estimates that approximately 50 percent of his 3,000 acres of corn fell over this year.
But Stewart thinks there might be a solution to this problem. "I think we need to be a little more aggressive in our strategies when late planting. Once we break May 20, guys have to start looking at switching to shorter-season hybrids and maybe dropping their population a bit in order to preserve stalk strength and lower drying costs," he suggests.
More facts and figures about Ontario corn crops can be found on the OCPA website at www.ontariocorn.org/facts.htm BF
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Will dairy foods lose out in the next Canada Food Guide?
Proposal to include milk products causes concernby DON STONEMAN
Dairy farmer groups have stepped up their lobby with Health Canada because of the strong possibility that dairy foods might lose their "special" category position in the next revision of the Canada Food Guide.Their concern was clearly expressed at the Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO) fall policy conference last October. "It is almost certain that, in future, milk products will no longer hold the enviable position of a 'mandatory' source of calcium and vitamin D for the population," according to background documents. The Canadian Food Guide was revised last in 1992.
It was only this year that Dairy Farmers of Ontario proudly announced that its promotion efforts had arrested a decades-long slide in fluid milk consumption and per capita consumption was actually edging back up.
The first lobbying step is to change the role of Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) nutritionist Helen Bishop MacDonald.
"I am realigning myself. I have to learn how to be a lobbyist real quick," says Bishop MacDonald.
"There is definitely going to be some changes" in the Food Guide, she says. "My job is to make sure that changes aren't bad for the dairy industry.
DFO board member Bill Ennott, chair of the government relations committee, says other special interest groups have joined dairy in making presentations to Health Canada prior to a finalization of revisions. These interest groups include drink manufacturers who are fortifying juices and drinks containing juice with vitamins and minerals found in milk. Ennott says there isn't "anything sinister" going on at the Health Canada level. "People are trying to make a living and they are designing products to replace other products, and if they can do it cheaper, maybe the consumer would want to use those."
These concerns aren't exclusive to Canada. The Food Pyramid, a comparable guide to healthy eating, is being revised in the United States.
"I remember being surprised that the American milk producer groups were seeing this as a huge issue as well," says Sharon Weitzel, Tavistock, another DFO board member. She attended the National Milk Producers Federation meeting in New Orleans in November.
Weitzel believes that the process of revising the American Food Pyramid is further along than the steps to revising the Canadian Food Guide.
Health Canada's Web site says that the Food Guide was started during the Second World War when normal food products such as butter were rationed.
Bishop MacDonald says there are "very good arguments" that will keep milk products in place in the food guide. Giving credence to alternatives is a cause for concern, she says.
Health Canada officials "have to understand that the public will be misled if they think that a fortified product is going to replace milk."
Health Canada has indicated that its approach is different than before, says Joanne Gallagher, dairy promotions for DFO and DFC.
"What you tend to pick up...is that they are in favour of recommendations that recommend choice," says Gallagher.
Producers must realize that the food marketplace is much changed from 12 years ago, Gallagher says.
It's not clear when the Food Guide revisions will be completed. The government is very hesitant to commit any process to a time line, Gallagher says.
The next stakeholder meeting is Jan. 20.
Bishop MacDonald notes that in the last round of revisions, the category of meat was revised to include 'meat and alternatives.'
"One of the proposals may be 'milk, milk products and alternatives.' My argument will be that there are very few alternatives. They can fortify the hell out of a food, but it doesn't make it milk," McDonald Bishop says.BF
© copyright 2003AgMedia Inc..
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The critical importance of cleanliness for your hydrostatic drives
One piece of dirt or junk that gets into the hose and then travels through the system is enough to cause damage to your high clearance sprayer or skid-steer loader
by KEITH BERGLIND
There's little tolerance for dirt or metal particles inside a hydrostatic drive system. Scratches in the close surface fit of the rotating valve plate in a hydrostatic pump or motor will allow enormous internal leakage, with loss of power and drive.The clean oil questions start when the machine was built. The factory that assembled your high clearance sprayer or skid-steer loader followed a strict routine to ensure that the system started clean. When they goof up here, they pay the warranty cost. Let's hope that any original debris they miss will do its damage within the warranty period.
The problems we are dealing with these days often involve high-hour machines. By the end of five or ten years in the field, there's a good chance that some repairs have been done. It may only be a leaky o-ring, hose clamp or hose that is twisted or damaged.
I'm sure that these repairs are not going to be done hospital clean out in the field or farmyard. One piece of dirt may easily get into the hose, and then start its trip through the system.
Any fresh oil you add to the tank should be screened and filtered, so reducing the risk of adding junk at this time. Still, any service work must be done with extreme attention to cleanliness. Learn to clean the tank cap area before opening to check or add oil. The tops of the oil bottle and the funnel also have to be very clean. That doesn't mean wiping off the big chunks with a dirty rag.
So take a good look at what happens during a field repair. I once lent my skid steer loader to a friend. He wanted to be helpful and repair a very small leak at a fitting. He couldn't get the right hose, so he decided to weld two fittings together to make an adaptor. When he started the machine and tried to move it, a piece of welding scale went into the wheel motor, destroying the valve plate surface. I could hardly see the scratch, but the loader now always turned slightly to the right and lacked full power.
The same thing happens after a massive pump or motor failure. We are seeing wheel motor failures in high-clearance sprayers, at high hours, especially in a wet year when the guys keep getting stuck. One sprayer distributor recently told me that they see many sprayers which go 2000 hours before failures then have trouble getting to 700 hours after a wheel motor failure repair. No matter what they tried, there was no way to flush every piece of iron after a failure.
Take a look under most high-clearance sprayers. The big hoses for the wheel motors are long and snake through the machine. Just imagine how you are going to flush each line until every piece of junk is gone.
Consider also what was happening at the time you burned out a wheel motor when stuck in a wet spot. The natural operator action is to forward-reverse until it will go no more. Every time you change direction, the oil rushes through that dead motor, picking up more junk and carrying it down the lines in both directions.
Your immediate cleaning problem, when dealing with a massive failure, has to be those big lines running from the big pump on the diesel motor down to the wheel motor. The oil goes around and around in these lines, carrying the junk with the oil.
If you limit your repair work to just changing the dead wheel motor, and then re-connect those contaminated hoses, you can count on another failure happening soon. Learn to flush these systems, even if you have to remove each hose and flush it clean.
Some general rules
Use the grade and viscosity of oil recommended for the hydraulic motors. The oil must lubricate the parts, as well as transmit the power. Select the oil needed for the critical component: the motors. Any oil good enough for the motors will be good for the valves and pumps.Hydraulic noises at cold start-up are usually due to cavitation. Noise may indicate too thick (high-viscosity) oil. Idle and warm the system before working under noisy load.
Air that gets in through joints and connections makes a similar noise. If the oil is too thick (high viscosity), then it will stay trapped in the oil and keep going through the system. If air bubbles are seen in the reservoir, locate the source and correct.
Hydraulic noise is not good for the system. Cavitation erodes and eats up vital surfaces. Metal particles explode and leave a surface that looks sandblasted.
Whenever oil is added to the system, it should be passed through a fine screen (200 mesh or finer) or pumped in though a 10-micron filter. Do not use a cloth to strain the oil, as lint can cause damage. Re-used oil must be filtered before being added to the reservoir.
Clogged filters cause a line pressure increase that will eventually force particles through the filter material. Or the filter by-pass valve will open and let dirty oil pass into the system. Severe damage will follow.
A clean reservoir is critical, so it must be inspected and cleaned, along with filter changes and repairs.
Small leaks must be repaired before the tank level gets low enough to let air into the pump system.
Look at the micron rating of the filter cartridges. That micron number is the smallest size of particle that will be caught. Study your shop manual, to ensure you are servicing all the filters and screens.
Keep the reservoir breather cap area clean. This filter keeps junk out of the tank.
Develop a cold-morning warm-up procedure, even if the sprayer is kept in a shed. An extended warm-up lets the oil viscosity thin out with heat, and the oil is no longer being forced through the filter by-pass valves.
Remember that the hydrostatic system has no service adjustments or checks. All any operator can do is keep the oil clean, repair any faults correctly, use the right oil, and avoid heavy loads under cold-start noises.
Get a proper repair manual for the machine. If the hydrostatic system is not covered in detail, get separate service manuals from the pump and motor manufacturers. BF
Keith Berglind is a licensed heavy-duty mechanic.
© copyright 2003AgMedia Inc..
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Better Decisions
Seven key decision areas to drive change on your farm
Knowing the end you want to achieve. Corralling all the potential decisions into a number of key areas will make it a lot easier to choose and manage the kind of changes you need to makeby CARL FLETCHER
One of life's mysteries is why some people plant perfectly good tree saplings directly underneath existing hydro lines. This is not something that you see everyday, but over the years I have noticed it on several occasions, both in town and along country roads. Perhaps some people expect that in 20 years there will be a new method of sending electricity over long distances so the wires will be gone when the branches are tall. Still, I wonder.
Stephen Covey, is co-founder and co-chairman of Franklin Covey Company, the largest management and leadership development organization in the world. In his best selling book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, he lists "starting with the end in mind" as one of the keys. "The sooner you know what your end goal is, the sooner you'll reach it," he explains.
Today's article jumps toward the end of the strategic planning process with a look at seven key decision areas where a farmer can take actions to drive changes in the farm operation.
With so many things that you could consider changing, sometimes it is hard to know where to start. Being able to corral all the potential decisions into seven key areas makes it a lot easier to manage change on your farm. Also, just seeing these key decision areas helps you recognize that there really are opportunities to make changes in your operation -- changes that can help you close the gap between where you are now and where you want to be.
The seven key decision areas found in table 1 (Currently unavailable) are:
The first column in Table 1 lets a farmer identify the current situation on the farm. This is the assessment of "Where are you now?" The second column is to record "Where do you want the farm to be in five years time?" In the example in Table 1, a 40 year-old cash crop operator has used the seven key decision areas for managing change to identify the strategic actions needed to meet his five-year goals.
- Business direction
- Product focus
- Marketing and supply linkages
- Financial
- Organizational structure
- Human resources
- Social responsibility
This farmer's goal is to keep the same business direction and business size over the next five years, growing in size only if the right opportunity presents itself. The farmer is confident in the current production recipe and current marketing and supply activities, and he aims to continue to make on-going improvements. His goal to be in the best 25 per cent of the industry five years from now has underlined the need to know both his own and the industry's cost of production.
Regarding key decisions in finance, this farmer aims to increase profitability by $25 per acre by in five years. While current financials are in order, it looks like the farm will need to be able to afford some additional external financing to allow the transfer of shares from the parents. Increasing money available for family living by $10,000 is another goal. Getting a system in place to keep and use on-farm cost of production records supports the goal of being in the top 25 per cent of the industry.
The family has decided that transfer of the parents' farm shares should happen in these next five years, giving them the time to do this in an organized way and minimize the cost of the transfer. Also, part-time labour may be needed as the father reduces his time in the daily operations.
Finally, taking a greater role in grain industry associations and understanding how Nutrient Management Regulations affect the farm operation are goals for the seventh key decision area, social responsibility. Every farm is different. Each farm has a different set of resources built around the strengths of the people involved in the farm. Remember that people have the most long-term success when they build on their strengths.
Some people might look at these five-year goals and say, "The farm operation is not growing in scale and so it is losing ground!" I disagree. Size is only one part of one of the seven key decision areas. The farmer has listed a growth in profitability, a growth in personal ownership of the operation, a growth in cost of production management capacity as well as a growth in debt as changes for the next five years.
The seven key decision areas show us that there are real actions that can be taken to drive change or capitalize on change in the farm operation. Since there is a real "end" to the strategic planning process, then you can start with the end in mind.
So, how do you start strategic planning for the farm business? You do so by creating a vision for the future of your farm. Creating a vision for your farm is the next article in this series. This is no coincidence. It was the end of the article that I had in mind when I started to write. BF
Carl Fletcher is a Strategic Business Planning Program Lead with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Guelph.
© copyright 2003AgMedia Inc..
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Why did the corn go down in 2003?
Delayed physiological maturity, European Corn Borer, Corn Rootworm, stalk and root rot all played a role in the corn lodged in last summer's fieldsby PAT LYNCH
Last October and November, one of the most asked questions was: "How come my corn lodged and what can I do next year?"In 2003, corn lodged in different fields for different reasons. It would be nice to give one easy answer covering all fields of lodged corn and then solve that problem for next year, but it's not that simple. Delayed physiological maturity, European Corn Borer, Corn Rootworm, stalk and root rot -- all played a role in varying degrees. The result: lodged corn, regardless of Bt or non-Bt.
Much of the corn was planted late. May soils were also very cold, leading to corn that developed much later than in other years. The colder soil meant smaller root systems that affected the crop later in August.
Later developing corn equates to delayed flowering and delayed grain fill. Cooler nights came and the plants panicked in their attempt to fill the ear. There was not enough sugar/starch in the leaves to meet the demand to fill the ear, resulting in stalk cannibalization. The greater the cannibalization, the greater the susceptibility to stalk rot.
Corn borer caused significant lodging in many fields. In 2003, corn borer pressure was similar to previous years but, because there was less strength left in the stalk, equal corn borer pressure to other years resulted in more stalk breakage.
The lack of moisture in August that caused low soy yields also impacted the corn. Generally, in August, a corn plant lays down lignin. This is an indigestible part of the corn stalk that helps give the plant rigidity. If the plant stops growing, either because of drought or other stresses, it is not able to go through its normal lignin production. This happened in many fields last year. Some hybrids produce more lignin than others. Good silage hybrids are high in digestibility because of the lower lignin production. These hybrids tended to lodge worse.
The above all applies to first year cornfields. On fields that had corn the previous year, corn rootworm increased the lodging problem. In many fields, the rootworms ate enough roots that there was root lodging. In most cases, rootworm damage also meant more root rot. The rootworm damaged the root tissue, allowing root rot to start. The damaged roots meant less root mass to feed the plant and less lignin to hold it up.
Later planted fields had reduced root masses, so the rootworms fed on a significantly higher percentage of roots than in a normal year. Continuous cornfields also had more stalk rot organisms.
So what about next year? Each year we have challenges with root rot, stalk rot and rootworm. These can all be lessened with rotation. Delayed planting this 2003 season accentuated these problems. Earlier planting and hybrid selection will make a difference.
With any luck, we will not see the lodging problems in 2004 that we did in 2003. You probably had a pretty good plan in place for your 2003 crop before Mother Nature played a significant role. Don't change things drastically unless you are fairly sure you are putting together a better plan for the 2004 crop. Thanks to Cathy Soanes of Syngenta Seeds for her contribution to this article. BF
Pat Lynch CCA (ON) is head agronomist for Cargill in Ontario.
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