St. JEAN, Man. – Why do some localized farm shows wither away after a few years, while others survive and thrive?
St. Jean Farm Days is an example of a community farm show that local growers look forward to, year after year.
At the 18th annual Farms Days, it was once again standing room only as 50 display booths and 500 people gathered on Jan. 8 and 9 in the Centennial Hall of this town located 70 kilometres south of Winnipeg.
Monique Papineau-Lafond is chair of the organizing committee. She has been on the committee for 17 of the past 18 years, so she knows it’s no accident that farmers keep coming back to the event.
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“In the early years, in the mid-’80s, we always had 500 farmers for the two days. Then it started to fall off, so we started asking which topics farmers came to hear about and what display booths they spent time at. It took some fine tuning, but now we’re back up to 500 people every year. And with 50 booths, there’s always something for a farmer to investigate.”
She added, “I think the other thing is the personal touch. We always start each day with a breakfast of homemade bread and homemade cinnamon buns. That seems to get things off on the right foot.”
Much of the information at this year’s Farm Days dealt with the growth in Manitoba’s soybean acreage. During his presentation, Manitoba Agriculture specialist Bruce Brolley told the audience that for 2001, he had predicted 40,000 acres of soybeans for the province. The actual number reached 46,000 acres. For 2002, he predicted 90,000 acres. The final figure was 120,000 acres. For 2003, Brolley expects 180,000 acres.
One of the local producers moving into soybeans in a big way is Gilbert Lussier. He and his sons farm 4,600 acres east of Morris, an area notorious for field flooding.
“We had always grown a lot of peas before because they fit our rotation,” Lussier said. “But as soon as peas see too much water, they get root rot, so we had to stop growing peas. Peas belong in Saskatchewan.”
In 2001, they experimented with 100 acres of soybeans as a possible replacement for peas. “Everything was flooded out that year. … Our soybeans were the only crop that survived that year.”
Although the 29 bushels per acre they harvested was not a big money maker, it was still much better than their other fields that had no yield. And it gave them a new option in their rotation.
For 2002, they cut back on the flood-prone sunflowers and jumped their soybeans to 1,050 acres. The fields ranged from 38-45 bu. per acre, with most fields near the higher end.
Lussier said moving into soybeans has not been a big expense so far.
“We already had the air seeder, and that’s working fine for soybeans. The first year we had to buy a flex header for the combine. Last year we bought another flex header for the other combine. The flex header is important if you want to get the biggest majority of your beans into bin without damage.”
As for 2003, “I think we’ll probably move up to about 1,600 acres of soybeans.”
Larry Newman farms 2,000 acres down near the American border at Emerson. He started with 35 acres of soybeans five years ago and has gradually built up to 260 acres, but he’s not ready to make any dramatic increases yet.
“We’ve had a couple of pretty good years for growing soybeans. We haven’t seen a summer frost for the past two years, so there haven’t been any wrecks. There’s a lot of guys that are up to 700 or 800 acres already, but I’m not sure we know yet how all the varieties will do here. I’ll probably stay with the same acreage for now.”
Much of the increase in soybean acreage comes from growers like Lussier who are eliminating sunflowers from fields prone to flooding.
Neil Biever is in charge of procurement for Harvest States Sunflower. With facilities in North Dakota and Minnesota, this co-operative is the largest buyer in North America of confectionery sunflowers.
Following his presentation at St. Jean Farm Days, Biever explained that the westward migration of sunflower acreage is understandable.
“I think we’re going to see major confectionery sunflower acreage moving out onto the Prairies because of the excess moisture we’ve been getting in the Red River Valley. Sunflowers can’t tolerate wet feet.”
“You can get a better crop of confectionery sunflowers in a dry year out on the Prairies than you can in the Valley with all the extra moisture. Sunflower roots go eight or 10 feet deep searching for moisture.”
Biever said the downside of the deep root system is soil moisture depletion. He said sunflowers belong in a four year rotation in an area where there is typically enough rain and snow melt to replenish the water they take out of the soil.
For 2003, Harvest States expects to pay Canadian growers 23 cents Cdn per pound.
One of the most popular booths featured the soybean recipe book of Winnie Edel, publisher of a half dozen recipe books. She was offering cookies, waffles, breads and other items made from soybeans. Her latest book, SOY Satisfied, containing 200 soy recipes, was released last year.
In addition to the book, Edel also sells soy flour and special mixes for waffles, pancakes and cookies. She creates many of these products at the Food Development Centre in Portage la Prairie, Man., and has her milling done there.
She started developing food products and publishing recipe books in the 1980s.
“Back in the 1980s I thought I’d write a cookbook, sort of as a way of dealing with stress on the farm,” said Edel, who farms with her family near Morris.
” I thought it might help a little bit financially, and at the same time I could promote the health benefits of flax and whole grain. But, mainly, it was just a matter of doing something positive with people.”
