PRAIRIE POST - Friday, April 20, 2012 - B5 Annual cropping decisions can be difficult Every spring western Canadian


farmers finalize their cropping mix for the coming growing season. In addition to the usual production


risk, producers are often analyzing marketing risk as they prepare to head to the field. Across the Prairies,


DAN


FarmLinkMarketing Solutions’ Marketing Advisors have been working with farmers to help them make the best planting decisions for their farm and location. The markets do a good job of telling the farmer


HAWKINS Another consideration on most farms is


the ability to handle the work load during the busy seasons. Even if a grower is willing to push the rotation for a year and grow the same crop, the workload at harvest especially could be troublesome. Harvest must happen quickly to reduce quality loss in the field,which could lead to extra price discounts (costs) if the whole farm is ready to come off at the same time. When overall profitability is of high concern in deciding the coming year’s


what to seed, then there’s the seed sales person adding his or her two cents, but at the end of the day, the decision rests with the producer. On most farms the most important factor is long


term sustainability or crop rotation. The desire to be a good steward of the land must be meshed with the demand of the marketplace and profitability in general.


acreage, the different crops essentially compete with each other for their share of the acres. The idea is to grow those crops that stand to earn the


farm business the greatest return,which involves careful estimation of both costs and returns. To make a fair comparison there are a number of expenses such as fuel, storage, labor and drying that vary significantly from one crop to the next. The portion of the total bill used to produce each


crop must be assigned accordingly in order for the comparison to be accurate. For example, if half of your farm’s bins are going to be used to store oats and all the wheat gets delivered off the combine, it’s not accurate to assign an equal storage cost to both crops. You’ll end up underestimating oat costs and overestimating returns, which could lead to a misguided profit- based planting decision being made. The process in which proper budgets and crop


analysis is made is not one to be started the second week in April. There is a lot of effort that goes into doing a proper estimation and accrual of production costs to each crop,but the peace of mind that comes as a result is well worth the effort. In today’s volatile markets and high cost of inputs the value of knowing to the penny what each acre of each crop is costing you is extremely valuable. (Dan Hawkins, P.Ag., is an advisor, with Farm Link


Marketing Solutions. Contact him at: dan.hawkins@ farmlink solutions.ca or phone (877)FRM-LINK or (306) 774-5954.)


New world of farm soils celebrated in 2012 National Soil Conservation Week


COURTESY MERISTEM Canadian farmers are driving a new generation


of developments in soil management that are changing the face of Canadian agriculture. Those developments will be in focus during National Soil Conservation Week, April 15-21. “Farmers are very aware of sustainable soil management today,” says Glen Shaw, executive director of the Soils Conservation Council of Canada (SCCC). “Soil management techniques such as reduced tillage farming systems have revolutionized cropping systems. Rather than tilling fields, crops are planted through the soil-protecting residue cover of the previous crop. That residue cover prevents erosion and improves soil health.” Another growth area is precision agriculture


where producers use new technology such as GPS units linked with new generation application capability to precisely apply exact amounts of agricultural inputs and manage their land in the most sustainable way. “Soil conservation is so much more than erosion control today,” says Shaw. “Food producers see their farms as part of broad food production systems directly linked with issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, carbon sequestration, water quality, air quality and biodiversity.” One sign of the global emergence of a new


generation of farming is the Sixth World Congress on Conservation Agriculture which SCCC, in partnership with the Conservation Agriculture Systems Alliance (CASA), is bringing to Winnipeg in 2014, says Don McCabe, SCCC president. “That conference will showcase Canadian farm


developments such as no-till farming systems to the world,” says McCabe. “The Beneficial Management Practices employed in conservation agriculture are the backbone of sustainability. The need in the future will be to ensure farmers get recognized by the marketplace for their efforts.” A new opportunity for farmers is the emerging bio-economy, he says. Ethanol and biodiesel production are well known, but the feedstock for the next wave of fuels, chemicals and composites will come from farmers' fields in the form of crop residues. This is a huge market opportunity but it must be done properly with soil conservation principles established to ensure long-term soil health. “National Soil Conservation Week is an annual


effort to put the spotlight on the continuing success in soil management and at the same time to keep soils in the eye of both farmers and the public,” says McCabe. “There is continued work to be done to better understand soil quality and management systems and our goal is continual improvement.” SCCC is a charter supporter of National Soil Conservation Week, says Glen Shaw. The past several years the organization has


acknowledged this by recognizing “soil champions,” producers from across Canada who represent the successes of the soil conservation movement. “We salute their efforts and as we do so, we remind


farmers and ranchers and the general public of what well managed soil means to everyone,” says Shaw. Articles on the 2012 soil champions and soil conservation in general, are available on the SCCC website www.soilcc.ca. The face and voice of soil conservation in Canada, SCCC is a national, non-governmental, independent organization, formed in 1987 to provide a non- partisan public forum at the national level for soil conservation. Those interested in fighting soil degradation can become an individual or corporate member of SCCC. Simply visit the Web site www.soilcc.ca and click on ‘Join SCCC.’


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41084829•04/20/12


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