Richard Gray, professor in the College of Agriculture and Bioresources at the University of Saskatchewan and Canadian Grain Policy Research Chair at the University of Saskatchewan, together with Michelle Ross, research assistant at the University of Saskatchewan College of Agriculture and Bioresources, have been commissioned by the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF) to conduct a benefit-cost analysis evaluating the Integrated Crop Agronomy Cluster (ICAC).

“With the overall study, we’re hoping to better understand the value and impact of research in the cluster,” said Ross.

The ICAC is an agricultural research cluster created to address the gap in multi-crop and systems-based agronomy research. From 2018-2023, nine million dollars were invested in ICAC research, with funding from WGRF, industry partners and Agriculture and Agri-food (AAFC) Canada’s AgriScience Cluster funding under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP).

With ICAC, most of what has been generated in the cluster is general agronomic knowledge that has built up over time to help producers,

“We’re focussing on three separate tools in the cluster, and those are the Fusarium Headblight Maps, the Prairie Crop Disease Network and the Test Monitoring Network,” she said.

All three are free for producers.

Building awareness

“The kind of questions that we’re asking is overall awareness of these public resources for both producers and agrologists and where producers and agrologists access this information,” she said.

The survey will improve understanding about how these resources are used, and if they affect farm decisions, she said.

“What initiated the research is that AAFC is making this a requirement under the next round of funding agri-science clusters with the SCAP (Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership) model for funding,” she said.

“We need to understand the impact of the funding, and while there are a lot of studies on how there are high returns overall to agriculture research, more research is needed to quantify those benefits, including research of the agri-science cluster,” she said.

Tough decisions

Ross said tough decisions need to be made when public and producer dollars are spent.

“Having evidence-based decision making is needed to best serve everyone; the industry and the public,” she said.

The survey is looking to gauge farmers and agrologists’ awareness of the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network, The Fusarium Headblight Maps, and the Test Monitoring Network.

Ross and Gray also want to find out whether producers and agrologists are using these tools to make decisions on farms.

Ross said participating in this survey is good for farmers, because while ICAC is publicly funded, but also funded through industry groups, and groups like the WGRF.

“Producer money has been used to do this research and create these resources,” she said.

“This goes back to due diligence, because there’s a very long wish list on what money could be spent on, so we need to understand the impact of this research,” she said.

The survey is quite short and will take a producer about 15 minutes to fill out. The survey can be completed on the phone, or on the web.

Ross said she hopes many producers and agrologists fill out the survey, so the research team can get a clear picture across the prairies.

The survey is open until December 31, 2025 and can be found here- https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/AgronomyResourcesSurvey

akienlen@fbcpublishing.com

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Independent agronomist Aaron Breimer spoke to the curveballs and unpredictability of the past year and offered predictions and suggestions for farmers in the coming seasons. He was a guest speaker at the Pride Seeds Pavillion.

Breimer began his talk by emphasizing the challenges this growing season presented.

“This year especially, mother nature threw lots of curveballs at us,” he said.

He said that some of these anomalies began during the winter.

“We didn’t have a frost,” he said. “We had oats surviving. We had peas surviving.”

He mentioned the increased presence of tar spot in corn as one general challenge this year.

“You know how to scout for tar spot right now? Go find a cornfield. If you can find a cornfield, you’ve got tar spot,” he said.

Later in the day, Great Lakes Grain (GLG) released the findings of its annual Crop Assessment Tour, and results were positive overall.

GLG outlined key findings on corn, soybeans and emerging technologies. Soybeans were found to “remain on track for a strong finish” despite challenges this year like root rot and white mould. Corn has a strong outlook, though it “will require a favourable September to reach maturity,” the report said.

“We’ve got a pretty good crop this year,” GLG Manager Don Kabbes said. “Even with the late planting and some of those things, it’s still gonna be a pretty good crop.”

He mentioned that unpredictable weather early in the year made for a tough start to the growing season.

“Our biggest issue was all the rainfall we had in May and June and some of the crop just didn’t get planted in very nice conditions,” he said. “I think that was probably our biggest issue going in. and then of course, some areas just didn’t get planted at all.”

Now, however, he said that “mother nature’s kind of cooperated” and the crop outlook for the year seems positive.

Like Breimer, he said he had seen tar spot “in many, many areas,” though producers have often managed to control it with fungicide. He saw this as a challenge farmers will have to adapt to.

“I think tar spot is here to stay,” he said. “We’re going to have to have pretty regimented fungicide programs to control it.”

Breimer offered several weather predictions based on current patterns.

“Typically, with La Niña, we’re going to have a dry fall, so that’s good for wheat, but at some point, probably close to the end of October into November, the switch is going to get flipped and it’s going to get stormy.

“I think it’s going to be a tough November when we get there,” he said. “I think we’re going to have good wheat planting conditions … overall, I’m thinking we’re going to have a decent fall to get crop off.”

He also predicted a dry spring in 2025.

“By that point, La Niña’s going to be giving up the ghost,” he said, “and usually when La Niña dies off, we start to go a little but dry.”

Kabbes said he felt positive for the remainder of the 2024 season.

“We have a pretty decent crop coming … we were a little bit behind last year, but it seems to have caught up the last few weeks here as well.”

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“We’re constantly looking for new ways to bring Canadian farmers the expertise they need to succeed,” said Marvin Slingerland, MNP’s senior vice president, agriculture, said in a news release.

MNP said it will join forces with 4R Agronomy, Annex Agro, Arrow Crop Management, Elite Ag, Max Ag Consulting and Sure Growth Solutions. Calgary-based consulting firm Convergence Growth will lead the agronomy practice.

All the agronomy companies will stay in their current locations while connecting with MNP’s 125 offices across the country, including 47 Prairie locations, MNP said.

“We all saw the huge potential to quickly scale up our agronomy services and provide even more Canadian farmers with the critical support they need to succeed,” said Warren Bills, CEO and co-founder of Convergence Growth.

Bills is also listed as an “agri-coach” on Sure Growth Solutions’ website.

“There are more than 34,000 farms in Canada that exceed 1,120 acres in size, many of which need specialized agronomic advice,” he said.

Fewer than 20 per cent of these farms use professional agronomy services, he added.

Bills had already been in talks with the six agronomy companies about joining forces when MNP entered the picture, the news release said.

The geographic spread of the merging-in firms—which collectively manage about1.5 million acres, is part of MNP’s strategy to reach farms, said Tanya Knight, MNP’s executive vice president of clients and services.

“These mergers are really about helping us to reach and support more Canadian farmers with their journeys and so we’re delighted to welcome all six businesses into the MNP family,” she said.

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Statistics Canada (StatCan) reported in its principal field crop estimates on Thursday that 267,900 tonnes of flaxseed are expected to be produced in this year’s harvest. The total not only represents a 43.4 per cent drop from the previous year’s 434,175 tonnes, but it would also be Canada’s smallest flax crop since 1967 when 238,250 tonnes were produced. This year’s Canadian flax crop would also be the second-smallest since 1954.

For yield, 18 bushels per acre were produced on average, the second-smallest since 2005, only ahead of 13.7 bu./ac. in 2021.

Last February, StatCan had projected 500,000 tonnes for the 2023-24 crop, but hot and dry conditions on the Prairies and lower prices, due to a lack of competitiveness with Russia and Kazakhstan as well as other domestic oilseeds, limited production.

“Agronomically, a lot of producers are opting away from flax to grow crops that are easier to deal with, like canola, for example. Flax doesn’t yield as high and you still have to deal with (flax straw). It’s not attractive right now for producers to put the extra effort to grow,” said Cory Jacob, Saskatchewan’s provincial oilseed specialist.

Saskatchewan is slated to grow 81 per cent of Canada’s flax and 26 per cent of the province’s crop was combined as of Sept. 11, according to the weekly provincial crop report. Jacob said progress is being made on the flax harvest.

“Overall, harvest will be done earlier for the majority of producers. But a lot of producers don’t have the greatest crop they’ve ever seen. Some producers who did receive rain are a little better off for yield,” Jacob said, adding that yields were varied this year.

The high-delivered bid for Saskatchewan flax as of Thursday was $16 per bushel, according to Prairie Ag Hotwire. While it is $1.50 higher than it was last week, it is still $7 less than one year ago.

“I can see prices coming back a little. As far as flax acres go for next year, I don’t know if we’ve found the bottom yet. That being said, I can’t see a really large uptick in the short-term here for acres. I think we’ll be near these record lows for acres,” Jacob said.

In order for flax prices to rise in the long-term, it needs to be more attractive for growers, he said — but it could be a hard sell.

“Producers know how to grow flax. It’s just putting that effort in or to take production away from other crops like canola or pulse crops or cereal crops,” Jacob said.

“There are better varieties coming, but it just doesn’t happen overnight, it takes a few years. Better varieties that are yielding a bit higher… But if we have higher yields, they may bring producers back to growing flax.”

— Adam Peleshaty reports for MarketsFarm from Stonewall, Man.

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“We’ve been really focused on making sure farmers have access to inputs and resources to get the 2020 crop in the ground,” Canola Council of Canada president Jim Everson said during an online town hall Tuesday.

However, both the canola council and the Canadian Canola Growers Association (CCGA) have several areas of concern, he added.

One is the decision by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to scale back its research operations.

“The canola council is advocating for a timely start to the 2020 yield trials that Agriculture Canada normally does, as long as they can be executed in a manner that is safe for everyone involved from a COVID point of view,” said Everson.

The federal field trials are key to the long-term effort to control blackleg, sclerotinia and other yield-robbing diseases, he said.

Everson said discussions are ongoing with AAFC and farm groups are asking it to review its research work “case by case and project by project to find solutions.”

His organization will continue to offer agronomy services this year, he added.

“We will not change this commitment to support producers, but our programs and our approaches will change.”

Other concerns include the shortage of personal protective equipment for farmers and ensuring they have adequate cash flow, CCGA CEO Rick White said.

“Cash flow is a big worry for farmers, COVID-related or not,” he said.

Like other farm organizations, the two canola groups have been talking to federal officials about changing the Advance Payments Program to help get more cash to the sector.

— Alexis Kienlen is a reporter for Alberta Farmer in Edmonton.

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Farm At Hand, which makes the cloud-based Crop Planner software suite for farmers and the Farm At Hand Agronomy suite for agronomists, announced Tuesday it has been wholly acquired by Telus for an undisclosed sum.

Few specifics of the deal were available last week, though Farm At Hand on Tuesday described it as “a natural fit” toward its goal to “simplify complicated tools to be user-friendly and match how you plan, work and keep track of what’s happening on your farm.”

Working with Telus, it said, will further that goal “by making Farm At Hand the hub that links together leading-edge software and IoT devices.”

IoT, or Internet of Things, refers to connected physical devices, such as farm equipment and crop monitoring systems, sharing data over networks without human involvement.

Farm At Hand recently announced it would work with tech firm Agrimatics to connect that company’s Libra Cart grain cart display and data management system with Farm At Hand account, and in May it announced integration with Deere’s MyJohnDeere system.

Through the Telus deal, Farm At Hand said Tuesday, it will be “better able to alert you to key changes, and offer advanced tools and information — a way of keeping track of everything in one central platform.”

Both companies emphasized last week that nothing will change immediately in Farm At Hand’s operations.

A Telus spokesperson said the Vancouver-based telecom firm “will continue Farm At Hand’s proven commitment to helping farmers best manage their farms, adding new features and services in the future.”

Farm At Hand, on its website, said its customers will “still have access to the tools you rely on,” adding “one of the things that we love about Telus is their approach to data transparency and privacy. They too believe farmers should own their information and be empowered to choose who they share it with.”

Asked whether Farm At Hand’s operations will directly connect to Telus’ in the future, the Telus representative said “we’re always looking at emerging areas where we can leverage data and technology to spur innovation, help organizations be more productive and improve the lives of Canadians.”

Telus — which provides consumer and business phone, cellular, broadband and cable service across Canada — said it “has long partnered with farmers to help connect, track and modernize farms and welcoming Farm at Hand to the Telus family will further that effort.”

Farm At Hand was founded in 2012 in Saskatchewan and relocated its operations to Vancouver the following year. In 2015 it became an arm of Winnipeg-based grain marketing consultancy FarmLink Marketing Solutions; co-founders Kim Keller and Himanshu Singh left the company the following year. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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U.S. grain firm The Andersons, the owner of Thompsons since January, announced Tuesday in its second-quarter report it plans to sell Thompsons’ “agronomy assets” to Burlington, Ont.-based Sylvite Holdings.

Financial terms of the sale, which The Andersons expects to close next month, weren’t released in Tuesday’s report, nor were any details about the exact assets going to Sylvite in the deal.

Ohio-based Andersons said Tuesday it will continue to own and operate Thompsons’ grain storage and food processing facilities in Ontario.

Sylvite, which began in 1977 as Sylvite Sales, a fertilizer supplier dealing mainly in potash, today bills itself as the largest independent agricultural wholesaler in Eastern Canada, with a “specialty presence” in the southeastern U.S.

The company’s business also includes Sylvite Agri-Services, which sells retail fertilizer, seed and crop inputs at five locations in southwestern Ontario. It also offers crop advisory services, grain handling and, in partnership with Thompsons, grain marketing.

Thompsons’ agronomy business includes crop advisory services as well as retail inputs, custom application, precision ag and equipment rentals, though The Andersons didn’t specify Tuesday which of those operations are to go to Sylvite.

The Andersons has been sole owner of Thompsons since it closed a deal in January for Kansas-based Lansing Trade Group, with which it had co-owned Thompsons in a 50-50 joint venture since 2013.

The Andersons on Tuesday booked $29.88 million in net income attributable to the company on $2.33 billion in sales and merchandising revenues for the quarter ending June 30, up from $21.53 million on $911 million for the year-earlier period (all figures US$).

“Extremely wet weather in many of our core grain origination markets benefited our trade group but hurt both our ethanol and plant nutrient groups during the quarter,” Andersons CEO Pat Bowe said in the company’s release.

“We were able to capitalize on merchandising opportunities caused by grain and feed ingredient price volatility. However, we’re concerned about the implications of a smaller corn crop on the utilization of our eastern grain assets for the remainder of this year and into 2020.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Canola Council of Canada on Wednesday announced a revised work plan, coming out of a “priorities review” undertaken after one of Canada’s biggest grain companies called a halt to annual funding for several oilseed industry groups.

Richardson International announced in January it would withdraw yearly commitments worth over $1 million combined to the Canola Council, Soy Canada and the Flax Council of Canada — the lion’s share of which had gone to the canola body.

The Winnipeg-based Canola Council’s resources “are now more tightly focused on the industry’s current priorities and the CCC programs most valued by members,” the council said in a release Wednesday.

From the perspective of the Canadian canola grower, that tightened focus will mean “less emphasis” on extension-style agronomy work by council staff, such as “individual field walks and on-farm support.”

Rather, the council said, it will put more focus on “engaging commercial agronomy in effective delivery and amplification of knowledge and best management practices to growers,” to be co-ordinated through a new CCC “sustainable supply committee.”

The council’s own agronomy specialists will still have “geographic responsibilities,” but are also expected to increase their focus on their “individual areas of specialization” such as clubroot, blackleg, stand establishment, weed management, storage management and others.

Staff will still provide “credible, evidence‐based data and knowledge to support all areas of CCC activity” from production issues though to “supporting market access objectives,” the council said.

Some council programming will also be moved to “other parts of the value chain,’ the CCC said. For instance, it plans to reduce its role in administering the Canola Performance Trials and transfer that responsibility to other stakeholders.

Other activities, such as the Ultimate Canola Challenge and sentinel site program, will be wrapped up, the council said.

The council said its team will also be “less involved” in provincial disease and pest surveying.

Market access and government advocacy remain “top priorities of the full canola value chain,” the council said, but CCC members “can also expect to see more advocacy on cross‐commodity issues” as the council offers “leadership and additional support” to the Canada Grains Council and Canadian Agri‐Food Trade Alliance.

Consumer‐oriented canola promotions will be “discontinued” in large markets where canola is “firmly established,” the council said, and its marketing work will shift to “maintenance and nurturing of the Canadian canola brand.”

In “new and emerging” markets, the council said it will work with the Canadian Canola Growers Association to develop and deliver a program for canola brand promotion and awareness, particularly in countries such as South Korea, Vietnam and Chile, where “free trade agreements are creating new opportunities.”

To fund its work, the council said, it plans to decouple its budget from a levy linked to production, processing and handling and instead tie the budget directly to “priorities and programs.”

The funding model will “provide more predictability for annual contributions,” the council said. Half the budget funding would come from producer groups, the other 50 per cent from the industry.

Thus, the council said, its core budget for 2019 will be $5.2 million, down from $8.7 million in 2017.

Core funders of the council include the three Prairie provinces’ checkoff-funded canola grower groups, the Canadian Canola Growers Association and (through the CCGA) the Ontario Canola Growers and B.C. Grain Producers Association.

Other funding sources include a voluntary processor levy through the Canadian Oilseed Processors Association, contributions from life science companies such as Bayer, BASF, Corteva, Syngenta and Nutrien and a voluntary levy on export companies such as Viterra, G3, Bunge, Cargill, Parrish and Heimbecker and Providence Grain.

“We’re very pleased that all segments of the value chain are fully behind the direction we are taking,” council president Jim Everson said in a release. “It’s a direction that will enable us to continue our record of leadership, while enhancing our partnerships.”

“With (council members’) input, we determined that the Keep it Coming 2025 strategic plan should remain our industry’s roadmap, and we will reset our priority activities to better respond to today’s needs,” council chair David Dzisiak said in the same release.

The Keep it Coming 2025 plan is based on achieving 52 bushels per acre to meet global market demand of 26 million tonnes by 2025. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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It is human nature for us to be organized and have everything looking pretty and in order. We are trained to do this right from childhood. Life is planned with straight lines, straight roads, straight fences and everything-grouped-together order. Some people are more so than others of course, but that comes down to our upbringing and our personality. If you have attended my school you will know that 70 per cent of the farmers fit into the personality style of an “ant.” They are hard-working, dependable people who are also very resistant to change. This high percentage of one personality type is why most farmers like to do things the same as they have always done. It is hard for us to jump out of a paradigm.

Then, if you are a “bumblebee,” it’s all about perfect order. Things have to be straight and organized.

The rest of us, the “dragonflies” and “butterflies” are not as hung up these things as we like a little chaos. But we are out numbered in agriculture by a huge margin compared to the “ants” and the “bumblebees.”

My point is, farmers like things to look nice. We are criticized for every crooked fence or for every weed in our field. We are trained that it has to look pretty.

I have a neighbour who is retired and he has been renting out his hayland for many years now. I love going to visit with him as we have some fantastic conversations about old school organic farming. He speaks of his involvement on the organic board back in the day and he always has new (usually old) and interesting information for me to learn. I was floored the last time I stopped in to chat as he is now renting his hayfield out to a conventional “min-till” grain farmer. The hay has been sprayed out and it will be cultivated up very soon. He was convinced by the grain farmer that he would be very happy with how the field will look. All the weeds along the fencelines would be gone, and the field will look perfect. It will look pretty because it will be a monoculture. My argument is, nature does not like a monoculture, and it does not work in straight lines. It is the variety and diversity of species that make the forest beautiful. Native prairies have numerous different types of plants, sometimes hundreds of different species.

Here is the big deal: A polyculture of plants will give you a polyculture of root systems, which gives you a polyculture of soil organisms. And this is when the magic happens. A truly healthy soil that is full of soil bacteria, fungus, earthworms, nematodes, yeasts, protozoa, algae and dung beetles will never need added fertility. Nowhere in nature do you see a nitrogen-deficient plant. This only occurs under our agriculture management. Even if this article offended you already, that’s got to make you wonder why.

A healthy soil is an incredibly complex ecosystem. There are millions and millions of interactions that occur within our soils. If you recall, I call this “my secret underground black market” and it is controlled by the mob! The mob (the plants) produce and control all of the currency (sugar). Everyone in the soil wants sugar. There are millions of soil organisms that constantly broker deals with the mob in the quest to get sugar. For example, a bacteria will produce a molecule of nitrogen and trade it for a molecule of sugar. So the more complex the polyculture of soil organism is, the more fertility your plants are able to receive in exchange for the life-giving sugar. This is a good deal for both sides.

How does this all start? Oh, right. We need to provide a polyculture of plants. So I will say it again: A monoculture is ugly. By removing that polyculture hayfield by chemical control and tillage, how many different species are killed? How many birds, insects, pollinators, earthworms, spiders and bacteria are gone? (Just to name a few.) The big loss is also in the destruction of the mycorrhizae fungi. This is a vast network of arbuscules that act like root extensions for the transportation of nutrients throughout the soil. There goes all our free fertility. Now we have to import it and pay for it.

Just so you know, nature will never stop fighting to get rid of a monoculture. She will send in weeds or pests to revert the ecosystem back to a polyculture. She will fight you with a disease or a fungus to revert the ecosystem back to a polyculture. And she will keep doing it. She will never stop. I can’t afford to fight against her. I almost guarantee that for every battle against the monoculture that nature has for us, someone has developed a magic bullet that you can buy to fight her. It will most likely come in a box, a bag or a bottle.

Don’t take this the wrong way; I do not dispute any product claims and I am not putting down any companies. The question I always ask myself is: how can I work with nature to solve this problem. Because I know it is costly to work against her.

We can see the results of our increased battle against nature in the research done by Darrin Qualman. Take a peek at Darrin’s work at his website here.

His graph (below) shows the gross and net Canadian farm incomes from 1926 to 2016. It is very clear to see that over the years, the proportion of profit for the farmer has been getting smaller while the ag business portion has been getting bigger. Quick fixes and magic bullets don’t make you more money. Wouldn’t it be neat if the farmer could actually make the profit in farming?

So how do you get away from the monoculture? Your perennial polyculture is the most natural crop we have, but I am not saying we need to put an end to grain farming. We still need it, but there is lots of work being done on cover crops, inter-cropping, perennial grains and poly-crops. You just need to Google it. Developing a good rotation of polycultures that can be harvested with limited tillage or limited chemicals is not out of the question. They are even working with zero-till organic systems now using a roller-crimper. We also need to integrate livestock back onto the land.

The crop rejuvenation application process from livestock is very important to building a healthy soil. I know this article might offend some producers and I do apologize. I just wanted to make a point that when we try to out-compete nature, it costs us in the long run. Next time you drive by a field and criticize your neighbour, remember: a polyculture is pretty, it is the monoculture that is ugly!

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Recycling ideas and nutrients

Cody Straza and his wife Allison Squires operate Upland Organics, a 2,000-acre organic crop farm near Wood Mountain, Sask. They grow several crops including cereals, oilseeds, and pulses, and use practices such as intercropping, cover crops (with 8-12 species), and green manure plow-downs. This year, they are about to adopt a practice that hasn’t occurred on their farm in nearly a decade — cattle grazing.

Straza says their focus has been on building nutrients and improving soil health but now it’s time to get cattle out there to help. “You can build nitrogen with legumes but when the plants are laid on the surface you can lose those nutrients. When we process those nutrients through a cow, we are also kick-starting the biology of the soil on our farm,” Straza explained.

This spring they will seed an annual cover crop and partner with a neighbour who will graze around 200 cow-calf pairs on their field using high-intensity, low-frequency management. Their collaborator will look after the fencing and water. “One of our main goals is to trample more than we eat. The livestock will eat the most palatable parts of the plants, and rest of the plant will become litter,” Straza said, and explained their costs will be reduced because they won’t burn diesel or run equipment to achieve the same outcome. Both Upland Organics and their neighbour have a back-up plan in case things don’t go as expected. “There will probably be lots of mistakes the first year — we are all going to be learning a lot,” said Straza, optimistically.

Opportunity on the other side of the fence

“I don’t know why more people don’t do this,” said Leanne Thompson, when asked about striking a deal with crop-farming neighbours for grazing. Thompson and her husband Ryan operate Living Sky Beef near Minton, Sask., where they run pairs, background, and feed cattle, on 7,000 acres of native and tame grass.

For the past seven years, the Thompsons have collaborated with adjacent landowners Derek Axten and his wife Tannis who were named Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers in 2017.

Axten says it makes sense to work together. “It’s been a really good arrangement and flexibility has been the key,” he said.

The Axtens have made soil biology a focus on their 6,000-acre farm and are using composts and multi-species cover crops to improve nutrient cycling and increase organic matter. “There are guys that are doing this without bringing cows in but this helps to jump-start the system.” Axten likes to leave about 50-60 per cent residue behind as a biological primer.

“We grow a lot of fall seeded cover crops. The Thompsons can use the grazing and they have enough numbers to make it easy to add cattle on the farm where we need,” he explained.

Ironically, the families first met when the Axtens were exiting the cow business. They were looking to sell their native rangeland and the Thompsons were looking to buy. “(They) started stubble grazing on our farm a couple years in. We were used to it; that’s what we always did. That’s how it started,” Axten recalled.

The Axtens installed proper perimeter fencing and the Thompsons are responsible for maintaining the infrastructure, temporary fencing, and moving animals. Access to stock water can be an issue, but the families have worked it out together. On some sites they developed new sources, on others they tied portable troughs into the Thompson’s existing pipeline.

Both couples stress the importance of forthright communication. “I think we’ve always had a really open dialogue about costs and pricing,” said Axten.

Leanne Thompson echoed that sentiment. “Sometimes price discovery can be hard, but nothing is free so you have to put a price on grazing,” she said.

“We also do a lot of horse trading,” added Axten. “We’ve been using manure from their corrals for composting.” They apply compost onto the soil surface, or into the soil in the form of compost tea.

For other cattle producers interested in developing similar partnerships, Thompson cautions that you need to be dedicated to the process and willing to prove it can work. “Once you get your foot in the door, you have to make sure it goes well. The first year or two are the litmus test.”

The livestock and crop sectors will always face ongoing competitive issues, but the potential benefits that come from working together are becoming hard to ignore.

Both parties involved in these arrangements should clearly negotiate terms and identify potential problems and solutions before issues arise.

For producers willing to think outside the box, and their property lines, grazing cattle on cropland can be a win-win situation for everyone.

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