a LUXURIOUS a TRUE aPPROACH MOUnTIe Earning premiums starts with avoiding Cattle thieves learned to fear the commodity mindset » PG 3 Cpl. Dave Heaslip » PG 42 Publications Mail Agreement # 40069240 Volume 12, number 7 M a r c h 3 0 , 2 0 1 5 It’s getting dry — is it time to worry? Face the Facts — No, says weather expert, but areas across the province are on Bruce Burnett’s watch list trust trumps science By Alexis Kienlen And Jennifer BlAir af staff for many consumers i t h w a r m - w e a t h e r records dropping like And the key to building trust, says expert Charlie Arnot, is to show that farmers are W flies and bare fields dry- transparent and share the same values as consumers ing out in parts of the province, is there trouble ahead? Don’t worry yet, says Bruce Bur- nett, weather and crops specialist By Alexis Kienlen at the CWB. af staff / leDuC “I don’t think that this early- spring weather means that we are hen it comes to talking about necessarily headed for a drought,” agriculture, a “just the facts” Burnett said in a March 20 inter- W approach doesn’t cut it anymore. view. attitudes towards the food industry have changed and those in agriculture see dry } page 6 have to adopt new tactics to reach out to consumers, said Charlie arnot of the Cen- ter for food Integrity. “People are fundamentally more skepti- cal about food than ever before, which is a great frustration to people in agriculture,” said arnot, CeO of the american non- profit organization, which is dedicated to building consumer confidence in the food system. “We find ourselves in a different place today, which means we need to adopt some new strategies. We can’t continue to do the same things we did 10, 20 or 30 years ago and expect them to work in this rapidly changing environment.” the Internet has changed how people learn about food, and controlling the mes- sage on this or any other topic is no longer possible, arnot told attendees at a recent social licensing conference here. TrUsT } page 7 PHOtO: tHinkstOck SPRAY WHEN YOU WANT IN THE CONDITIONS GO YOU’VE GOT. It’s GO time — visit dowagro.ca TM Trademark of The Dow Chemical Company (“Dow”) or an affiliated company of Dow. 0115-41246-2 AFE 2 news » inside this week MarCH 30, 2015 • alBERTAFARMeXPRESs.Ca inside » livestock crops columnists BASIC BIXS TO LESSEN THE FINE TUNING Sylvain CharleboiS STAY FREE HoW will ConsuMers reaCt STRESS FERTILITY to a GM apple? 4 But new owners also want paying customers brenda SChoepp 8 InspIred By tHe OPPORTUNITY ContributIon of WoMen 5 AWAITS If GM alfalfa can roy lewiS be kept out of Measuring the pros and are you leaving money on the evaluatInG a Bull Isn’t Western Canada 20 cons of remote weighing 12 table by skipping soil tests? 17 straightforWard 14 Improve performance with a sweet treat for your cattle — afternoon-cut forage Sugar concentration in forages peaks about 11 to 13 hours after sunrise — and can be as much as five per cent higher end of the wilting period, you still had that By Jennifer Blair difference.” af staff But swathing reduced the sugar concen- tration, said Bélanger. ‘ ake hay while the sun shines’ is “Cutting alfalfa at the end of the day — good advice in more ways than between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. — without swath- M one, says a federal research sci- ing is the best way to maximize sugar con- entist. centration in wilted forage.” “there’s fairly strong evidence that shows, While the concentration of sugar was by increasing the sugar concentration in for- greater in some species, such as reed canary ages, you can improve the performance of grass, all forages showed an increase when ruminants,” said Gilles Bélanger, who spoke cut in the late afternoon — up to five per cent during a recent Beef Cattle Research Council in some cases, said Bélanger. webinar. “We did this research on a number of for- “If you want to increase sugar concentra- age species that are widely grown in Canada, tion in your forage, the easiest thing to do is and for all the forage species that we had, cut your forages in the afternoon.” there was an increase in sugar concentration Cattle performance has been linked to with the p.m. cutting.” how microbes function in the rumen, said Bélanger. and those microbes have a sweet [email protected] tooth. “the growth of the microbes depends on both the energy and the protein content of that forage,” he said. “If we increase the concentration of sugars in forages, we’ll have more energy available to the microbes.” the maximum sugar concentration is reached toward the end of the afternoon, 11 to 13 hours after sunrise, Bélanger found. “as you go through the day, there’s an increase in the total amount of sugars, and that increase comes mostly from the starch,” he said. “as the crop grows, it produces sug- ars faster than it can use them for its growth.” and the gain can be substantial. “the concentration of sugars can increase “Cutting alfalfa at the end of between two and four per cent — that is, it the day — between 4 p.m. and can go from six per cent in the morning to eight per cent at the end of the day — and the 6 p.m. — without swathing is maximum is reached toward the end of the the best way to maximize sugar afternoon and early evening,” said Bélanger. the afternoon-cut crop also maintained concentration in wilted forage.” its sugar concentration longer than its morn- ing-cut cousin even when left to lie in the field for a few days, he said. Gilles BélanGer “throughout the wilting process, the dif- ference in sugar concentration in p.m. and You can please the palates of cows — and boost their feed performance — a.m. cutting was maintained so that at the by cutting forages later in the day. Photo: ThinkstoCk NO INTEREST, NO PAYMENT UNTIL JANUARY 2016!* 1+1=3 I-Series + SwitchBlade = 3 Machines in 1 TRUE VERTICAL TILLAGE MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS I-SERIES (I-1100, I-1200, I-2100, SwitchBlade hydraulic shank attachments I-4100) tools give you superior convert vertical tillage to fertilizer applicator surface tillage and residue or coulter chisel in seconds. It’s like three management in spring or fall. machines on one frame. *Terms and conditions apply, see dealer for details or visit www.salfordgroup.com/financing. I-SERIES – Equipped for Deep Placement Dry Fertilizer Application www.salfordgroup.com I Ontario, Canada I 1-866-442-1293 14192_Salford_1plus1equals3_10.25x3_AlbertaFarmer_Apr15.indd 1 3/13/15 11:27 AM ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • MARCH 30, 2015 3 Want to earn a premium? Then take a page from Rolex’s playbook Heritage Angus Beef became one of Canada’s largest specialty beef producers by positioning itself as a luxury product By Jennifer Blair af staff / ponoka hat do BMWs and bison have in common? More W than you might think, says the CEo of Heritage angus Beef. “Bison or high-end beef are no dif- ferent than high-end scotch or Grey Goose Vodka or a Rolex,” Christoph Weder said at the Wildrose Bison Convention earlier this month. “Bison are not a commodity. they’re a luxury product. produce it with the mindset that you’re pro- ducing the Rolex of proteins. “It’s about the story.” the story of Heritage angus Beef began around the time drought hit in 2002, when Weder was a cattle producer and alberta agriculture beef specialist near Camrose. after a visit to the peace Country, where drought was less of an issue, Weder and his family packed up and headed north to Rycroft. a week later, BsE was found on a farm down the road from his old operation. so Weder decided he needed a differentiated product and began raising beef without added hor- Premiums come from marketing your product as a luxury good, says Heritage Angus Beef CEO Christoph Weder (right), seen here at a Swiss food show mones or antibiotics. for hotels and catering companies last year. PHOTO: yOUTUBE “no one else was doing it at the time,” said Weder. “Everybody else one of “the biggest downfalls in was getting out of the beef industry, agriculture” is focusing entirely on but we used it as an opportunity to the cost of production. “Beyond no hormones expand and keep growing.” “We teach everybody ‘produce, today, Heritage angus Beef con- produce, produce,’ but really, at the and no antibiotics, sists of more than a dozen ranches end of the day, we’re producing food people want to know producing specialty beef with a products,” he said. long list of attributes: hormone and “We want to get paid for those where their food comes antibiotic free, GMo free, grass fed, food products, so we really need from — what’s behind it, environmentally friendly, prairie to know about and concentrate on Wise certified, Halal certified, veri- marketing.” what’s done to it, who fied, audited, and fully traceable. at Heritage angus Beef, Weder are the people that are “at Heritage angus Beef, we’re works to be “in the bottom 20 per more than beef,” said Weder. “We’re cent on cost of production, but also raising it.” trying to build a luxury car that has in the top 20 per cent in marketing.” all the bells and whistles.” “to continue in agriculture, it’s a lot of its beef is exported to high- not just about lower cost of produc- Christoph end markets in Europe and it also tion.