Dealing with double whammy of drought and contract cut

by George Fullerton
New Brunswick potato farmers Brent and Carol Anderson continued the Anderson tradition of getting their crops harvested and safely stored again this fall. Brent is the third generation of Andersons, based in Beechwood, N.B., to carry on the farming tradition.

The farm is on the Cahill Road in central Carleton County and a couple of miles east of the Saint John River.

Brent’s grandparents John and Edith Anderson operated a small 50-acre mixed farm at the location. When John became very ill with arthritis, their sons Dean, Frank, and Gordon were taken out of school to attend to spring planting and general farm operations.

Like many of their generation, there wasn’t much schooling after that. Dean and Frank dedicated themselves to farming, while Gordon sought out other employment.

In 1956, Dean and Frank began contracting potatoes to McCain Foods, delivering to the French fry plant in Florenceville. The two Anderson brothers, with the dedicated support of Dean’s wife Clara, continued to add land and built up the operation, eventually abandoning less profitable aspects of the mixed farm and concentrating more and more on potatoes and other cash crops. In addition to contracting potatoes to McCain, they grew seed potatoes and marketed table potatoes. They also produced peas contracted to McCain, and grew grains in rotation with potatoes. 

Through their tenure, the Anderson brothers grew the operation to around 175 acres of potato production annually. The brothers were recognized a number of times by McCain Foods as one of the company’s top-10 producers.

NEW GENERATION

In 1986, Dean and Frank were looking forward to retirement and began the management transition to Dean and Clara’s son Brent and his wife Carol.

Brent and Carol continued with a high standard of management and growth of Anderson Farms Ltd. During the past 30-odd years, the farm has been recognized by McCain Foods 16 times as one of its top-10 producers and twice received the champion grower award.

The current generation of managers has built the farm’s potato production up to around 500 acres annually.

Family values continue to be important in the operation. Brent and Carol employ their son Ryan on a full-time basis and their daughter Cara on a seasonal basis, along with Brent’s brother Stacey, cousins Terry Anderson and Calvin Ruff, cousin-in-law Laurie Crain, as well as Jordan Wade, Trudy Vail, and Ryan Crain.

“We have a very dedicated group of employees and they continue to make a major contribution to our success,” said Brent. “I attribute our good quality record to our attention to a good crop rotation plan. We follow every potato crop with a plow-down year, where we plant a mix of clover and alfalfa. The crop is chopped with a batwing mower and plowed down to add organic matter to the soil and boost biological activity. The alfalfa has a deep and aggressive tap root, which penetrates and breaks up soil compaction and benefits water control in the soils.”

Following plow-down, fields are planted in oats, which are contracted to Quaker Oats for human consumption. Harvested oats are delivered to Eastern Grains in Drummond, N.B., where the crop is cleaned, dried, and stored, and eventually shipped out to Quaker production facilities.

In recent years, more than 90 percent of the Andersons’ potato production has been contracted to McCain Foods, with the balance to table markets. Varieties produced include Russet Burbank, Shepody, and Innovator.

Potato seed is sourced from the New Brunswick government’s Bon Accord Elite Seed Potato Centre as E1 stock, which the Andersons plant as E2 stock the following spring. The harvest is sold as E3 product to McCain Foods.

FALL FERTILIZING

In the autumn, prior to the potato growing year, fields are uniformly grid sampled using two-acre blocks. Fields are then limed and fertilized with a GPS-equipped spreader truck operated by County Lime Ltd. according to the nutrient requirements of specific areas of the fields.  

“Springtime is very busy and having fertility for the potato crop already in the ground avoids one of the springtime chores,” said Brent.

As McCain contractors, the Andersons must subscribe to the CanadaGAP (Good Agricultural Practices) Program, which is a food safety audit program. They have a comprehensive audit scheduled every four years and may be subject to a random audit in the intervening years.

The program requires detailed record keeping.

The audits focus a good deal of attention on traceability from seed through the production cycles and delivery to the processing plants. The audits review records of inputs, field rotations, chemical storage, application, and container disposal, and many more production practices.

This year, the Andersons wrapped up their potato harvest during the first week of October. According to Brent, the combination of COVID-19 and this summer’s drought made for a very challenging season.

Because pandemic restrictions shut down a good deal of restaurant businesses, at least temporarily, there was a severe decline in demand for French fries. As a result, McCain Foods announced a 15 percent cut to producers’ traditional contracts for 2020.

Brent said the contract cut had a major impact on their operation but added that this year’s drought hurt them even more.

“The drought was definitely the worst I have seen in my lifetime,” he said. “It has caused us a production reduction of 30 to 40 percent. This will be a very hard year for all producers.”

Despite the production deficit, Brent said that the quality of their potatoes was very good.

The Andersons celebrated the end of harvest with a big turkey dinner for their entire crew – another important tradition!

Island cranberry growers harvest fruits of their labour

by Kathy Birt

Mike and Lolita Whitty have invested a lot more than money in their Mikita Farms cranberry operation in Farmington, P.E.I. The couple lives in St. Peters, just six miles from their bustling cranberry farm, and have beat the pavement back and forth many times since the year 2000 when they planted their first five acres. 

They planted another five acres in 2003.

Ten acres may not seem like a big farm. But Mike Whitty said it costs about $50,000 to establish an acre of cranberries, adding that one acre will produce more than 30,000 pounds in a good year. He said theirs is the second-biggest cranberry farm on the Island, adding that P.E.I. producers grow about one million pounds of cranberries a year on 75 to 80 acres of land.

It takes three to five years to get a mature bed. “That’s if you have no problems,” said Whitty.

Cranberries can’t just be grown anywhere.

“We need level, flat land, which makes it easier to flood,” said Whitty, adding that a layer of sand is spread for a base in which the cranberry clippings are planted. “That layer underneath is what holds floodwater for harvesting.”

Mikita Farms grows the Stevens cranberry variety.

“It is easy to grow and a hybrid, juicy berry,” said Whitty. “It has a short seasonal maturity, excellent vigour, and a yield comparable to other commercial varieties.”

Mikita Farms brings in about 16 hives from a local bee producer to pollinate the cranberries after the region’s blueberry fields are pollinated in the spring.

Whitty added that weeds love to grow in warm, irrigated cranberry beds.

They control weeds by “weed wiping” – using a hand-held tool to apply Roundup to the weeds. “We wipe the weeds but don’t touch the cranberries with the chemicals,” said Whitty, adding that the grassy fields surrounding the cranberry operation are kept cut short to discourage insects.

Whitty explained the importance of having access to water for the cranberry crop.

Cranberries – which have a pocket of air inside them – form on low-growing, matted vines. Flooding a cranberry bed makes it easier for a harvesting machine to remove the cranberries from the vines. The dislodged cranberries float to the surface of the water and are loaded onto waiting trucks by way of a pump and a conveyor. 

Mikita Farms pumps water from a nearby 17-foot-deep reservoir through a flume into the cranberry bed for harvesting, which takes place in the fall. The Whittys employ six to eight men during that time. And Whitty said people come from all over the Island to watch the harvest.

They also use water from the reservoir to protect the plants from frost in the spring and for irrigation when required. They use soil tensiometers, which measure soil moisture. “That will alert me, telling me the cranberries need to be irrigated,” said Whitty.

And they also flood the cranberry bed in the winter. The resulting ice protects cranberry vines and buds from winter injury. The Whittys also spread clean sand on the ice – which is called “sanding” – and is a common practice among cranberry growers. When the ice melts, the sand settles into the base of the bed, which helps smother weeds, bury insect pests, and stimulate root and shoot development.

Whitty said the price for cranberries was low in the early years of their operation and practices such as sanding often took a backseat.

“In the lower-price years, we couldn’t afford to do the sanding, even though it promotes growth and adds more poundage to the acre,” he said. “The sanding part of the operation is crucial to the growth.”

While cranberry prices have been as low as 13 cents per pound in the years since 2000, prices today are typically 40-45 cents per pound.

“That is still low,” said Whitty. “They should be at 75 cents or more.”

Lolita has been involved in the growth of Mikita Farms from the get-go. She takes care of the bagging and the roadside stand where some cranberries are sold to farm-gate customers.

The Whittys sell the bulk of their crop to the Wyman’s blueberry plant in nearby Morell, which began buying cranberries in recent years. For growers like the Whittys, that’s a positive. A steady market just down the road works to their advantage.

Wade Dover, general manager of the Wyman’s plant, said the plant purchases cranberries from a number of growers around the Island. The crop is cleaned and frozen at the plant.

“We ship them in 40-pound boxes to commercial markets,” adding that a good deal of the Island’s cranberry crop ends up in baked goods such as cranberry loaf and other baking needs. “And the cranberries are shipped all over the world.”

Mikita Farms also offers a value-added product in their Juice Boost cranberry juice, which is sold in one-litre containers.

“It’s pure cranberry – cold-pressed – and the consumer adds two parts water, one part juice to mix it,” said Whitty.

Their mature and diversified cranberry operation hasn’t come without a lot of hard work.

“I built all this bog here,” said Whitty, as the fruits of their labour were loaded onto trucks this fall. “And to make it successful, you gotta work at it.”

Rats and mice can cause significant damage to your farm

by Heather McLean
Rats and mice are often a problem on farms. In particular, autumn can be when you may see populations noticeably increasing in and around barns as food supplies in the fields disappear and the cold weather sets in. 

Rodents might be small but they can cause significant damage to your farm. They can cause damage to insulation, wood, and electrical wiring.

A rat can eat 10 to 20 kilograms of feed in a year, and a pair of mice will eat two kilograms. They can contaminate 10 times the amount of feed they eat with their droppings, urine, and hair. Rodents are recognized carriers of at least 45 diseases, including dysentery, leptospirosis, trichinosis, salmonellosis, toxoplasmosis, and rabies.

UNDERSTANDING RODENTS

A few mice and rats can easily multiply into several hundred within a few months. One female rat can produce six to seven litters of eight to 10 young in a year. Mice can have five to 10 litters of five to six young per year. 

Rats and mice have very poor eyesight but excellent senses of smell, taste, touch, and hearing. They don’t like open areas and prefer contact with walls and other objects. They don’t range far from the nest, about 45 metres for rats and nine metres for mice.

Rats are very apprehensive about new objects and will avoid them for several days, whereas mice quickly accept new objects. Both are more active at night, particularly right after dusk.

Rats and mice prefer cereal grains (and rats eat meat when available), but they will eat almost anything when food is scarce. They both eat every day, and while rats prefer access to water daily, mice can survive several days without water. 

Rats can squeeze through holes as small as one centimetre (0.5 inch) and mice can fit through holes as small as 0.6 cm (0.25 inch).

EVALUATING POPULATIONS

There are several indicators of a rodent population on a farm:

• Sightings: rodents are nocturnal, so not seeing any doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Daylight sightings of mice are more common. Rats are only seen during the day if populations are high. Quietly enter the barn at night and wait five minutes. Look around with a flashlight. Rodent eyes will reflect the light.

• Sounds: by standing quietly in the barn, you may hear gnawing, climbing sounds in walls, or squeaks.

• Droppings: fresh droppings of rats are black and about 1.9 cm (0.75 inch) long, while mouse droppings are black and 0.6 cm (0.25 inch) long.

• Other signs: look for runways, tracks, and rub marks where rodents have travelled. Look for gnaw marks or wood bits around boards, bins, and crates. There may also be signs of burrows in the ground or nests.

PREVENTION SUGGESTIONS

Construct buildings in a manner that discourages rodents from entering. Doors should fit tightly, with metal kick plates and no gaps.

Drain cover holes should be less than 0.6 millimetres in size.

Seal any openings, including those around windows, doors, and vents, and where utilities, conduits, pipes, and augers enter the barn. Trim tree branches that touch or are close to farm buildings.

Destroy all nesting spots, remove rubbish and old machinery from around buildings, store wood off the ground, and keep grass cut around buildings.

Store all feed in rodent-proof containers where possible. Mortalities and edible garbage should also be kept so that they are inaccessible to rodents. Remove any feed spills inside and outside the barn. Reduce water availability in and around buildings.

TRAPPING AND POISONING

There are a number of control methods:

• Snap traps: place traps in dark corners, behind objects next to walls, and wherever rodents are noticed, with the trigger at a right angle to the wall or object. Bait the snap traps with an attractant such as peanut butter or cheese for mice, and bacon, fish, or meat for rats. For rats, leave baited unset traps out for several days before setting them to allow them to get used to them.

• Multiple catch traps: these can catch many mice and are ideal beside doors and feed areas. They can be baited with an attractant such as peanut butter. Place the hole of the device along a wall.

• Glue boards: these catch and hold rodents the same way flypaper catches flies. They’re the method of choice where toxic baits are a concern. They’re not effective in areas where there’s a lot of dust.

• Rodenticides: these include multi-dose anticoagulants, single-feeding anticoagulants, and acute toxins. With multi-dose anticoagulants (such as warfarin, chlorophacinone, and diphacinone), numerous feedings over eight to 20 days result in internal bleeding and death. A break in feeding will allow the rodent to survive. With single-feeding anticoagulants (such as bromadiolone and brodifacoum), one feeding will result in death within days. Acute toxins (such as zinc phosphide) result in death due to physical complications, often from one feeding.

Commercial baits can be purchased in several forms, each having their advantages and disadvantages. Secure bait in bait stations and keep bait fresh, as rodents have an excellent sense of smell and will not eat decayed bait.

Place bait near signs of heavy activity. In the attic, secure bait stations with a nail or wire. It’s recommended to rotate bait chemistry and presentation every few months to prevent bait shyness and resistance.

When handling bait, bait stations, traps, and dead rodents, wear rubber gloves to prevent human scent transfer, accidental poisoning, and disease transfer. All rodenticide products are poisonous to other animals, so ensure they’re not accessible to non-target species. Always observe label precautions regarding use, handling, and storage.

It is more efficient to place more stations with less bait than to have fewer stations with more bait.

The elimination of rats and mice from poultry and livestock barns is extremely difficult. It’s preferable to prevent infestations from occurring in the first place. But once a large population exists, there are options to regain control. If problems persist, contacting a professional pest control company may be the next step.

(Heather McLean is a non-ruminant and biosecurity specialist with Perennia Food and Agriculture Inc.)

NSFA offers five days of virtual events for 125th AGM

by Victor Oulton
This year marks the 125th year since the formation of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture. And what an eventful 125 years it’s been! While this isn’t how we imagined we’d be celebrating this milestone, we are excited to be switching things up a bit this year. I’m going to walk you through our schedule of events for our #NSFA125 celebration. 

MONDAY, NOV. 30

We’ll kick off the week with a public trust webinar at 12:30 p.m. We’ll welcome Clinton Monchuk, farmer and executive director of Farm & Food Care Saskatchewan, to discuss public trust. Together, we’ll dive into what public trust is and why it’s important. We’ll also look at how you as a farmer can develop and build trust in our food system.

TUESDAY, DEC. 1

On Dec. 1, we’ll dig into the topic of soil with an ag-environmental webinar on soils at 10 a.m.

One of the keys to a healthy environment is a healthy soil. A healthy soil can be achieved by balancing its physical characteristics (such as texture and structure) with the chemical features (such as pH and nutrients) and the biological properties (such as organic matter and diversity of soil organisms).

This webinar highlights the importance of finding and maintaining balance in soil properties, as each plays an important role in crop production.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 2

On Dec. 2, the Nova Scotia Young Farmers (NSYF) business meeting will take place at 7 p.m. Members and those interested in joining the NSYF are encouraged to attend. 

Following the business meeting, the NSYF and our AgSector Program will host a farm transition webinar. 

A big key to successful transfers is the use of strong, open communication. Farms successfully transition by implementing a written plan, making decisions based on values and vision, and considering the impacts from ideal financial, tax, and legal perspectives.

A transition plan examines options and identifies obstacles, dealing with the management succession and the transition of assets.

To start conversations and help farmers learn from others’ experience, we’ll host a virtual panel discussion. Terry Jones, a transition specialist with Farm Credit Canada, will moderate the panel of farmers from three operations who’ll share their stories with you, followed by a question and answer session. The farms are Van Dyk’s blueberry operation in Caledonia, N.S., the Boydsdale dairy farm in Norton, N.B., and La Fleur du Pommier in Cocagne, N.B., which grows apples and other tree fruit, strawberries, raspberries, and vegetables.

THURSDAY, DEC. 3

On Dec. 3, we’ll dive into the NSFA business meeting, which begins at 9:30 a.m. and is slated to run until 4 p.m. The action-packed agenda includes council nominations and election, strategy and program updates, resolutions, policy presentations, and government speakers, including a quick question and answer session with Nova Scotia Agriculture Minister Keith Colwell.

In the evening, we’ll welcome you to join us for a virtual happy hour with Halifax bartender Shane Beehan! If you’d like to join us for happy hour, Beehan will provide recipes and a list of ingredients to make the drinks along with him. You can also simply attend the happy hour to chat and catch up with others and listen to Beehan’s demonstration. Please note, Beehan will provide a recipe for a non-alcoholic option as well. 

FRIDAY, DEC. 4

The last day of #NSFA125 features the launch of Farm Safety Nova Scotia’s mental health campaign at 1 p.m., a mental health webinar at 1:30 p.m., and Farm Safety Nova Scotia’s business meeting at 2:30 p.m.

Dr. Bill Howatt of Howatt HR Consulting will lead the mental health webinar on the topic of “mental fitness.”

Have you ever thought about your mental fitness? Your physical fitness is impacted by a few factors, including how well you eat, sleep, and exercise. Your mental fitness is also significantly impacted by your habits and routines. Without intentional focus, specifically in times of uncertainty, you can begin to experience adverse effects. This webinar will discuss the foundational elements of mental health and mental illness, and how our daily experience can influence our personal battery charge. This webinar will also cover the key elements of resilience and coping skills, and how micro-skills can charge your daily battery.

Online registration for the AGM is now open. You can register by visiting nsfa-fane.ca/agm or by calling the office at 902-893-2293. This is a new process for all of us and we hope you’ll join us as we celebrate the NSFA’s 125th annual meeting!

(Victor Oulton is president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture.)