EDGERTON, Alta. – On a corner of the kitchen counter in Darlene and Barry Marshall’s farm home are four jars of seed.
There is a small jam jar filled with barley, a tall olive jar full of peas, and two small vases filled with canola and wheat.
In the glass jars are samples of the seed the couple will plant this spring on their 8,300-acre farm in eastern Alberta.
One day earlier, the couple took the jars to Chauvin Gospel Centre to be blessed in a special seed-blessing service. Parishioners brought large bags of seed, packages of garden seeds and pictures of cattle.
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“By committing the seeds to God, we believe He blesses that what we give to him,” Darlene said.
“We believe if He blesses the seed they will produce better.”
That faith carries through to their continuing belief in agriculture, a rare commodity among many farmers this spring.
“I’m positive about the spring. You have to look ahead,” said Barry.
“I’m a positive person. As a farmer I love the land and I love to grow the crops, but we’re here to make profits,” he said.
This is the first year the couple hasn’t locked in a price for their crops before seeding. Usually half their canola is priced by this time.
“We’re hoping for $6.50 or $7. We’re going to hold on,” said Barry, who is gambling the price of canola will rise.
“We try to build in a profit,” he said, something that’s not easy to do this year. For the first time in years he shopped around and negotiated hard for the best price for fertilizer and chemicals.
“We have to check the prices. With the prices, we’re tougher than we like to be.”
Darlene suggested they cut back on fertilizer to reduce costs, but Barry thought that would be a step in the wrong direction.
“You’re losing your yield and you need volume to make profit,” he said.
In an effort to become more efficient, Barry has switched from two sets of seeding equipment to one new 64-foot Bourgault air drill he plans to operate around the clock with three shifts.
“There’s less running, doubling up of trucks and fertilizer costs. It’s a way of utilizing the equipment more,” said Barry, who estimates it will take 20 working days to seed the 8,300 acres with the new equipment.
“We feel we can almost do as much with one as with two,” he said.
A much-needed snowfall at the beginning of last week has pushed seeding back a few days. It will give him time to think about his final seed mix.
He plans to seed 5,000 acres of barley, 1,300 acres of canola and 1,000 acres of peas, but isn’t sure about the 1,200 acres of wheat he has planned.
“I’m a little hesitant about wheat,” he said.
Marshall’s indecision is similar to other farmers, said Craig Solberg, manager of Crop Tech Agro of Wainwright, Alta.
“This is the single biggest indecision year I’ve seen,” said Solberg of farmer’s cropping plans. “They’re still undecided on acres.”
There’s a possibility of higher prices on No. 1 and 2 hard red spring wheat with 13.5 percent protein. There’s some interest in the new varieties of malting barley and sales of peas and inoculant are up.
Sales of canola are down. Solberg said he and his company looked into their crystal ball last year and tried to forecast sales including fertilizer. About two-thirds of the anhydrous ammonia fertilizer was applied last fall when prices were lower.
Solberg tries to convince other farmers that fertilizer is key to high yields and good returns, even though it’s more expensive.
Expand territories
Like farmers, the business has expanded to stay profitable. More sales staff have been hired and the company increased its geographical area to encompass more farmers.
“Our margins are getting thinner, just like our clients, and we’re finding more ways to stay profitable,” said Solberg from a quiet office that he expects will be full of farmers looking for fertilizer within days.
“By the end of the week it will be a different story,” he said.
“They’re just waiting for the ground to warm up and the soil to dry enough to carry the equipment then they’ll be putting peas in the ground.”
