HAGEN, Sask. Ñ Identity preserved crops are growing in popularity on the Prairies, but Dave Newhouse is taking it to the extreme this spring.
The Hagen farmer is planting his entire farm to IP varieties: 1,000 acres of Snowbird white wheat through Cargill; 1,000 acres of Nexera canola through Agricore United and Louis Dreyfus; 1,000 acres of IMC canola through Cargill; and 160 acres of perennial rye grass through Brett Young Seeds.
Newhouse, who farms with zero-till continuous cropping, has grown IP crops for the last four or five years but this is the first time he has contracted every acre, something that he said was more lucky than intentional.
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“It was just the way the planets aligned this year but I think it is the way of the future,” he said.
“It’s going to be tough for us to compete with the world on commodities. We’ve got to have something a little special.”
This is going to be particularly true as consumers continue to demand more traceability from the food they eat, he added.
“That’s the way it’s going to work.”
His head-to-toe immersion in IP was largely the result of this year’s rotation, which leaned heavily toward canola. Conventional canola prices were less than thrilling, however, and he was attracted by the $1 to $1.90 a bushel premium that the specialty oil canola varieties offered above the market price. The white wheat was contracted through a Canadian Wheat Board program that offered a $2.50 a tonne premium and paid for on-farm storage.
Newhouse said IP has its downside: extra paperwork is required; he must ensure that crops are kept separate during seeding, harvest and storage; and he needed to buy a few more bins. He’s also not a big fan of being forced to deliver to a specific elevator company instead of being able to shop around for the best deal.
Another problem is what it does to his producer car plans. Newhouse is a member of the Birch Hills Producer Car Group, which owns a loading facility in nearby Birch Hills, Sask. This year he won’t be able to use the facility because all of his crop must be handled through elevators. He’s not entirely pleased with the situation.
“The downside is I won’t be loading producer cars, which I think are a very important check valve for the industry to keep everybody honest.”
Robert Arnestad isn’t convinced IP necessarily has to mean the end of producer cars. It depends largely on the direction that IP takes in the next few years, said the board member of the producer car group.
If elevator companies take over the IP game, then Arnestad admitted that wouldn’t be good for producer cars. However, if grain buyers such as malting companies become the bigger user of IP crops, then the future turns brighter because producer cars are the easiest way to ship grain to those buyers.
“The big companies are suggesting they prefer to buy malting barley direct from farmers,” Arnestad said.
