Crop storage headaches loom on horizon

A sense of calm descends over Prairie fields this time of year — at least on the surface.

Activities become more limited in the weeks leading up to harvest. There’s not much farmers can do now to support this year’s crop, other than monitor and protect it from diseases such as sclerotinia in canola and leaf stripe and fusarium head blight in wheat and barley.

July is when you might see farmers wading into a thick stand of canola, conducting a so-called “wet pants test” to get a low-tech read on how much disease-inducing moisture is lurking in the canopy.

Disease pressure is high in a humid, hot summer like this one and it’s kept aerial applicators busy applying fungicides. Sclerotinia spores live on plant residues in the soil and blossom into a mould that destroys the canola stem, starving the maturing pods.

Fusarium head blight in wheat not only causes yield losses, but can also create mycotoxins that are harmful to humans and livestock. The Canadian Grain Commission monitors incoming deliveries for fusarium-damaged kernels to keep infected grains out of the food system.

The fields may be quiet, but the trucks have been busy hauling out the grain farmers want to sell before the new crop year begins Aug. 1.

Bins won’t be empty, however. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s latest outlook estimates the amount of grain being carried over into the next crop year is 46 per cent higher due to last year’s bumper crop.

The jury is still out on this year’s yields. Driving west, you’ll see everything from unplanted and drowned-out fields to bumper stands. As things look now, AAFC predicts this year’s total crop will be about six per cent smaller than last year’s, but still seven per cent above the five-year average.

If the new crop comes off as expected, some farmers could be facing storage headaches.

The Canadian grain handling and transportation system is geared towards “just-in-time” delivery. The handling and loading facilities have minimal storage capacity and typically turn over their inventory six to eight times in a marketing year. The grain is pulled in from farms, graded, cleaned, blended to a consistent standard and loaded onto trains that carry it to export or domestic processing.

As a result, more than 70 per cent of the grain and oilseeds Canadian farmers produce is stored on the farm until it can be delivered into the system, even if it’s already committed to a buyer. That places all the onus on the farmer to invest in storage capacity and keep their grain in good condition until the buyer takes it.

That’s different than the U.S. system, which has commercial storage, often constructed with U.S. government subsidies, that can store more than half of the crop — sparing farmers the need for investing in their own.

A late spring and extra moisture mean Prairie crops are maturing more slowly this year. Winter cereals — those seeded last fall — are developing a golden hue, but their harvest is still a couple of weeks away.

Now is also when industry extension advisers are ramping up their “Keep it Clean” campaign promoting acceptable practices for applying herbicides before harvest.

Weeds that are still green when the crop is being harvested can plug harvesting equipment and damage quality later in storage. The herbicide glyphosate can be an effective tool for addressing that.

However, it’s not a desiccant. If it is applied before the crop is mature enough, it may “dry down” the crop but leaves residues in the grain. And because of ongoing controversy around glyphosate, some buyers refuse to accept grain that has been treated with it.

Farmers sign a declaration when they deliver grain into the handling system that their grain is eligible for the class they are delivering into. They are now more frequently asked to sign a declaration saying they haven’t applied products that could affect the marketability of their grain.

If a farmer gets red-flagged for not following the rules, it could affect their ability to deliver grain for years. No one needs that headache after the work and expense of producing a good crop.

Laura Rance-Unger is editor emeritus for Glacier FarmMedia. She can be reached at lrance@farmmedia.com