CARIBOO FARM NEWS
Spring 2000
Daily weather forecast from Environment Canada starting
JUNE 19th,
2000
Call the Weather Line Toll Free 1-877-728-2288
The forecast will be recorded every weekday morning
and we will try to have the latest forecast on the tape by 9:00 a.m.
Please give us a call if there are any problems with the recording.
Long Range Forecast from Country
Guide for June – July - August
June – Weather disturbances from the Pacific
are expected to drop moisture in western B.C. resulting in greater
rainfall than normal while eastern B.C. and Alberta should be near normal.
July – August 19th - Pleasant
weather will be interspersed with showers, resulting in near normal
temperatures and rainfall amounts close to normal.
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Hugh Phillip, P.Ag.
Plant Industry Branch, BCMAFF
Lindane WP is still the product of choice because of its reported
longer residual activity to the alternative product Delice 1% pour-on
containing permethrin, a synthetic pyrethroid. The Pest Management
Regulatory Agency announced last year that all lindane labels in Canada
will not be approved for renewal after December 31, 2000. This move is
part of an international protocol to restrict or eliminate chemical
substances that contribute to transboundary pollution. What this means
is that lindane can be used this year on your cattle, but not after
December 31, regardless if you have stockpiled some product for future
use. Residue tolerances for lindane in meat could be eliminated such
that any meat found with residues could be confiscated in Canada, the US,
Europe and Russia.
In response to this loss of lindane, a 3 year research project is
planned to develop replacement control products, including a vaccine. This
proposal is a joint project of the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Research Branch (Lethbridge & Kamloops) and the Ministry of Agriculture,
Food and Fisheries (Kelowna) in cooperation with BCMAFF staff in Kamloops,
B.C. Cattlemen's Association and local livestock associations (that have
provided 'seed' funds).
Earlier research showed that permethrin insecticide applied as
either a 1% pour-on or as a 0.5% back-line spray performs as well as
lindane wettable powder back-line spray. A minor use application will be
submitted by the Ministry of Agriculture for the registration of a
permethrin back-line spray, hopefully for the 2001 tick season. This would
give producers two methods of applying permethrin. It is important that
other control products are developed as reliance on a single chemical or
class of chemicals (such as synthetic pyrethroids) can lead to insecticide
resistance among tick populations.
In summary, use up any stocks of lindane this season as its use will
not be allowed after December 31, 2000; an application for registration of
a permethrin back-line spray will be made to complement permethrin pour-on
products; and a project will be started to develop alternative tick
control products.
Some site for further information:
Chemical control recommendations:
http://www.agr.gov.sk.ca/livestock/wclp/beef/brocktck.asp
Life history with pictures:
http://www.agr.gov.sk.ca/livestock/wclp/pests/rocktick.asp
The BC livestock and poultry pest control fact sheet is at:
http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/cropprot/livestck.htm
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A Small Farm Development Course is planned for the Quesnel area in the
Fall of 2000.
The course will be held 1 evening a week for 6 weeks during October and
November. Further information will be available at a later date.
If you are interested or have any questions, please give us a call at the
Ministry of Agriculture office in Williams Lake.
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Ted Moore, P.Ag.
District Agrologist, Kamloops
Data was collected on yield and quality of the corn at the end of
October, as well as quality assessment made in December and January. In
addition, at the rancher project (Gus and Anne Fischer’s, Old Jackson
Ranch, Cache Creek) cattle were grazed on corn from mid-December until the
end of February. A brief description and summary of the project follows:
Gus Fischer seeded 76 acres under a center pivot to corn on May 19,
1999. The field had been in barley/ryegrass the year before, and a fall
(1998) application of Roundup was made to clean up some couchgrass and
other weeds. The field was disced and harrowed, prior to seeding the corn
with a grain drill with every other run blocked. This resulted in corn
rows at a 17" spacing. The target population was 30,000 plants per acre,
with the actual plant population (based on sample plant count) of 34,000
plants/acre. Two varieties of corn were seeded – Amaizing Graze 110 day
corn and a Hyland silage corn. Primextra herbicide was applied
post-emergence to provide broadleaf weed control.
|
October 16, 1999 |
|
Dry Matter (lb/acre) |
Amaizing
Graze |
12,383 |
Hyland |
12,026 |
|
October 16 |
December 8 |
January 26/00 |
|
CP% |
TDN% |
CP% |
TDN% |
CP% |
TDN% |
Amaizing Graze |
9.4 |
64 |
7.4 |
64 |
9.6 |
60 |
Hyland |
7.75 |
64 |
7.4 |
63 |
8.2 |
64 |
As you can see from the tables, yield of the 2 varieties was
essentially the same and the quality was remarkable consistent between
October and the end of January. Feed values are typical for corn, with
moderate protein levels, but good energy (TDN) levels.
Cattle Results
On December 15th, 392 bred cows were put onto the 76 acre
corn field. The field was subdivided into 8 paddocks (size from 8 – 10
acres), using electric fence. Thirty head of cows were weighed prior to
turnout and again on February 11, 2000. During that time period (74 days)
the cows on average gained 76 lbs. or 1 lb/day; this is adequate for the
cows to maintain condition, plus account for fetal growth and birth
fluids. Cows continued to graze on the corn till the end of February with
calving starting by the end of the month. Gus reports calving is going
well, with calves lively at birth.
This 76 acres of corn provided over 28,000 cow days of grazing or about
375 cow days of feed/acre.
While not suitable for every site (e.g. wet fall weather can result in
fungus growth and loss of the crop) corn grazing offers the potential for
our drier areas to reduce wintering costs. A cost comparison between
growing, harvesting and feeding alfalfa hay and corn grazing estimates the
hay system costs 1.65/cow/day and corn grazing costs .96/cow/day.
If you have any questions, please contact Ted at the Kamloops Ministry
of Agriculture office 250-371-6050.
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The top world Cattle
inventories, Beef producing and Cattle exporting countries
Country |
Cattle Inventory |
Beef Production |
Beef & Cattle Exports |
India |
307,000,000 |
3% |
3% |
Brazil |
143,000,000 |
13% |
6% |
China |
123,000,000 |
9% |
0.7% |
U.S.A. |
99,000,000 |
24% |
17% |
European Union |
77,000,000 |
15% |
13% |
Argentina |
50,000,000 |
5% |
4% |
Russian Federation |
45,000,000 |
4% |
3% |
Australia |
26,000,000 |
4% |
22% |
Mexico |
25,000,000 |
4% |
2% |
Canada |
13,000,000 |
2% |
13% |
Uraguay |
10,000,000 |
0.8% |
5% |
New Zealand |
9,000,000 |
1% |
8% |
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Locating web sites that provide current and relevant farm business
management information continues to be quite an adventure for many BC farm
managers. The new FBMInet-BC page link, 'Internet
Sites of Interest' has been developed to allow the farm manager to
spend less time on the information adventure…..and more time viewing the
type of information they can apply to their farm business.
The series is a set of 10 factsheets…one for each of the following
commodities: Beef, Hogs, Dairy, Poultry, Berries, Grapes, Vegetables,
Greenhouse, Tree Fruits and Direct Farm Marketing…listing 50 - 60 key web
sites. The series is available online at
http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/busmgmt/info_mgt/handbook.htm. This series was compiled using on-line
searching, references from commodity experts, agri-databases and through
"hands-on" experience on the web. The web sites included in the series
have been selected because of their strong content, applicability to BC
agriculture and because many of them provide the user with information
plus a whole new set of links to web resources.
Business Management Specialists
B.C. Ministry of Agriculture, Food and
Fisheries
Lawrence Hurd |
Abbotsford |
604 556-3001 |
Lorne Owen |
Abbotsford |
604 556-3001 |
Roger Keay |
Kamloops |
250 371-6050 |
George Geldart |
Vernon |
250 260-3000 |
Howard Joynt |
Vernon |
250 260-3000 |
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http://www.gov.bc.ca/agf/
Field Crops factsheets now posted:
- Alfalfa Diseases and Deficiencies in B.C.
- Barley Silage and Central BC Recommendations
- Barley Variety Descriptions & Central BC Recommendations
- Central BC Forage Recommendations
- Crop Rotations for Central BC
- Direct Seeding for Perennial Forage Crops
- Oat Silage and Central BC Recommendations
- Oat Variety Descriptions & Central BC Recommendations
- Tall Fescue and Endophytes
Access these factsheets at:
http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/forage/index.htm
or
go to the main BC
Agriculture website -- select the crops and livestock button --
follow the links to the Field Crops Factsheets.
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Saskatchewan – – July 18th – 23rd, 2000
Herbs 2000 is an international celebration of the herb
and spice industry and is comprised of two events: the International Herb
Conference being held in Saskatoon July 18th – 21st
and Herbfest being held in Outlook on July 22nd – 23rd.
This will be an opportunity to network with top experts from areas like
herb production and processing, marketing, the essential oil industry,
traditional Chinese medicines, aromacology, culinary herbs, indigenous
plants, plus retail and innovative herbal products.
Educational and recreational tours of herb research plots,
commercial herb production, retail outlets as well as historical and
wildlife sites will be offered. The Trade Show will provide an opportunity
to network with companies which have products or services of interest to
the herb and spice industry.
Further information is available from the conference web site:
http://www.extension.usask.ca/conferences/herbconference2000
The conference brochure and registration information is available
from the Ministry of Agriculture office in Williams Lake. Please give us a
call if you would like a copy.
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Peter Fofonoff, P. Ag.
Senior Agrologist
Peter.Fofonoff@gov.bc.ca
Ken Awmack, P. Ag.
District Agrologist
Ken.Awmack@gov.bc.ca
Martin Sills, P. Ag.
Resource Agrologist
Grazing Enhancement Program
Martin.Sills@gov.bc.ca
Lynn Wright
Secretary
Tania Bonner
Clerk, Grazing Enhancement Program
Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries
300 – 640 Borland Street
Williams Lake, B.C. V2G 1R8
Telephone: 250-398-4500 -- or Toll Free 1-800-474-6133
Fax: 250-398-4688
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