Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: All right, folks, I've got Mark and Kent joining me with Brett Young this week. We're going to talk forages. We're going to talk seed availability, we're going to talk about establishment guarantees if you've got cattle. If you are looking to establish a forage crop, this is the episode for you. We'll talk crop marketing as well. Let's get into it. Episode 115 of the what the Futures podcast.
Hey, folks, welcome to the what the Futures podcast, your quick guide to better farming decisions.
All right, folks, welcome into episode 115 of the what the Futures podcast, recorded each and every week in the UPL studio. Hope you had a dandy of a week from a crop marketing perspective. A bit of a bit of a sideways week. Kind of start the week a little bit lower, end the week a little bit higher.
But hey, as of recording, Canola markets, you know, it's hanging in. It's, it's going and challenging some of the old highs here from the last couple of weeks. And the wheat markets also kind of doing their thing. All right, nothing really new this week from crop marketing at least from my perspective. What's going on in the Middle east, what's going on with Trump and the US Exit plan out of Iran, I do not know.
But as of recording the latest was the Pentagon was working on some new, some new offense apparently, some new strategy to get going. All right, I had a great week. I was in Marwane this week. I did a crop marketing kind of update outlook for James Oberhofer and it was phenomenal. James and the group over there, great group of farmers in the Marwane Curling Club. We had a good time, look forward to do it doing that again sometime real soon. There are some good questions, some good dialogue. In fact, I'm going to take the presentation. I'm doing this presentation three times and towards the end of April, I'm going to send a version out for you guys to, to listen to it to check out. All right, so that's been a bit of a bit of an inspiration for me here this week. So that's my positive moment. Just getting out and chatting with farmers and being able to do a bit of a song and dance here from a crop marketing perspective.
Now this episode, this is all about forages, all about, you know, if you're looking to plant some grasses, some alfalfa, fescue, all sorts of different things out of my wheelhouse a little bit. But don't worry, we have Mark and Kent with Brett Young and let's get into it with those folks right now and get us up to speed with all things Brett Young and the forage side of the of the market.
Welcome to the show, guys. Here, Kent and Mark, I certainly appreciate you guys jumping on the what the futures podcast for this week. I want to get to the nitty gritty here right off the bat. There are some deadlines coming up. I'm a crop marketing guy, so forgive me if I fumble this around, but when it comes to forages, there's some type of guarantee, some type of deadline right around the corner. Mark, do you want to walk us through this deadline? It's very important deadline.
[00:03:20] Speaker B: Absolutely. So the forage guarantee, something that Brett Young's been doing for quite a number of years now, part of it, I guess, is just us partnering with the grower. So if you decide to make a commitment to us, we're willing to make a commitment to you. So anything ordered before April 1 would qualify for 100% coverage, which would be 100% replacement of the seed in case of some sort of natural disaster or act of God clause. Probably relates more to the grain, guys, something they've heard before. So. Yeah, yeah, that's a program that we offer.
[00:03:53] Speaker A: So in what maybe, what, what cases have you seen or what could happen if I'm, you know, going to establish this new forage crop for this year? Like, is there anything that kind of stands out as oh yeah, or a frost or a.
I don't know, what, what event could it be?
[00:04:11] Speaker B: Yeah, so frost. I mean, that's definitely a really good example. One of the more interesting ones, actually. I've been doing this for a few years. I've never seen it until last year. Three claims on wind, excessive plow winds and erosion where it took the entire quarter of an inch of topsoil off the field. And at that point we knew nothing was coming. The grower didn't want to sort through and reseed the dirt on the side of the field, so we helped them out.
[00:04:35] Speaker C: Something that's pretty topical now is like gophers.
[00:04:40] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:04:41] Speaker C: Because we don't have adequate controls available to growers. So gopher damaged grass seedlings are so slow growing that gophers will come and clean them off pretty easily. So that's another one that's you're seeing a little bit more now just on
[00:04:58] Speaker A: gophers for a second. I, my very start in agriculture, I unfortunately I did a non agronomy guy, but I did a summer of agronomy. We went to go do a Plot Tour. We cleaned up our site and everything. And then when we went to go and bring the farmers to the plot tour, some how the gophers just cleaned it all out. Well, when we got everyone out there, I think it was like a. A week delay and those gophers did some damage. So anyways, we'll come back to Gophers on another episode. All right. Ken, where you. Where are you hailing from? Here? Where are you from? How long have you been with Brett Young?
[00:05:33] Speaker C: So I, I'm, I'm based in Cochrane, Alberta. I have been with Brett Young for 13 years currently.
I did work for Brett Young straight out of university for four years and kind of went on to do a couple other things in between and came back and I've been with them for 13 years now, only in the. In the forage seed realm with Brett Young.
[00:05:54] Speaker A: All right. Okay. And what, what's your title? Like what. Who. If I've got this problem, what are you solving for?
[00:06:01] Speaker C: Forage seed guy.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: Forge seed guy. There we go.
If we, we could just call you the Forage Guy, I think that would really catch.
[00:06:09] Speaker B: So I like it.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: And what about you, Mark? Where are you calling in from today?
[00:06:13] Speaker B: So I live just between Red Deer, Rocky Mountain House, so also west in Alberta. So I've been with Brett Young 14 years, kind of in various roles. I started out Lloyd Minster area and moved my way west, so. Yeah. And a regional account manager with Brett Young for the Central Alberta region.
[00:06:31] Speaker A: Well, you guys picked a couple of nice places to live. Those are some, some dandy country there. We. When we go camping, that's where we kind of head down to that pocket. So. So nice. Nice stuff.
[00:06:42] Speaker C: It's fortunate that's where all the cows are, too.
[00:06:46] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Beautiful cattle country in that area for sure. All right, awesome. Now I want to. I want to talk. It is getting towards the end of March. I want to talk about, like, forage seed availability. Are we right on time when it comes to planning for the forage side? Is this something that happens earlier, later than today?
Where are we at from seed availability and from a planning phase?
[00:07:09] Speaker C: The things like the establishment guarantee, the purpose of them is to try and help drive planning and get things done earlier.
As far as grass seed goes and forage seed, it. It takes. It takes a lot of work and a lot of moving pieces to get everything going in a very short window time at seeding. So a lot of those programs are designed to try and drive planning and get things going as early as we possibly can it is kind of successful, but there's like a, it's like a 50, 50 split of like there's an early planning chunk of the, the, the growers out there that, that do it between February, March, early April. And then there's the other half. It's like, wow, this isn't remade closer to springtime. So it's, it's kind of all hands on deck and get it done as quick as possible.
[00:08:07] Speaker A: Obviously, cattle markets have been, you know, knock on wood, have been pretty good the last number of years. Now do you guys see, does that translate into going and, and being a bit more aggressive on the rancher side, the farm side of like, you know, maybe not waiting as long to go and plant a new, a new stand and to keep it into condition, or is it kind of just flow as, as per usual?
[00:08:30] Speaker B: I think it, it definitely creates some opportunities for sure. When you're looking at forages similar to any crop really, you're looking, you want to look at a decent rotation. So forages are receded. I think our average used to be quite a bit longer. Window you might have a stand in for 10 years or longer. Now we're seeing guys pushing those stands a little bit harder, pulling a bit more production off of them, and then that in turn they're rejuvenating those stands, receding those stands quicker. I would say one of the other things we've noticed with cattle prices being better, there's a lot of pockets in fields where growers, you know, normally receiving their wheat through, but they realize they're only getting 15 or 20 bushel wheat. They're putting all these inputs into this, you know, 20 acre corner of the field. So they started to put more of that into grasses, whether that's into hay or into something, you know, if it's a saline area, lowland area, we're seeing more of those small pockets being seeded back to grass rather than seeding right through with expensive annual crops.
[00:09:31] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, fair enough. Has there been like a change in like the performance of, you know, I like, I think about wheat and barley and canola and how that's evolved the last couple of years. From a yield or production perspective, is it the same on the forages? Like, is there a couple of new ones where Brett Young has it? You're like, wow, this is, we've been working on this for, you know, a decade and now this is out and it's, it's performing so well. Like, is there anything like that that stands out there?
[00:10:01] Speaker C: There definitely is, but it's Way slower moving than other annual crops. You think about breeding forage species, they take a full year to establish and it just slows down the whole, the whole breeding process with forages. So you do get things like saline tolerance or winter survival or forage quality that are being bred for or digestibility. Those are all things that are targeted and, and have been improving over years. But it's at a much slower rate than plant breeders can breed annual crops.
[00:10:39] Speaker A: Okay, fair enough.
Fair enough.
Okay, I want to talk here about, you know, if I'm, if I'm listening to the pod and I am, you know, considering planting some forages here this spring. Like what, where do I kind of get started? When I'm looking to select like a certain variety or a certain path, like where, where do I kind of get started?
[00:11:05] Speaker B: I think that's something that our, our product line managers have done a really good job over the last couple years. We've made it quite easy and it makes it less intimidating as well. So we do have some online selector tools that a grower can look through. Our website helps you with a few key questions. I think that's the biggest thing.
We do strive to train our retailers exceptionally well as far as helping to pick and select varieties, but it definitely gives you a chance to sort through and start with the stock blend. I think that's our kind of, our bread and butter of our business for sure.
Gives you that, that initial opinion. This is something that fits really well. And then from there, if you do have specific needs or grasses or legume contents that you're after, we can help you modify a blend from there and potentially move it into a stock blend type situation where we're crafting something specifically for you or your needs on that field.
[00:12:01] Speaker A: So you're getting quite specific here then, like how, how common is that to create like a custom type of product for a farm? Is that something that is like everyday normal for you guys or is that kind of every once in a while?
[00:12:16] Speaker B: I think it's, it's definitely a part of our, our portfolio for sure. And I think it ties back really well what we were talking about earlier as far as the early planning standpoint. So making sure we've got the product at hand, we've got the product to get it together. Custom blends are definitely a slower process. So it is something where we need to know, you know, ahead of time, we need to be looking at that ahead of time, making sure we've got the product and we get it blended in, in your hands for the right Time when you want to actually seed it.
[00:12:44] Speaker C: If you're talking about the actual breakdown that we do, it's probably a third custom to 2/3 stock blends or it might even be custom blended in at the retail level. So we have lots of retails that, you know, they're right in the heart of cattle country. So they have floor stock of many different varieties and they'll custom blend straight into, straight into fertilizer floater.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. All right, cool.
When it comes to kind of preparing for a new forge, Stan, like what are some of the things that, that, you know, farmers should be looking at here when, when you're investing in, you know, some new, new seed and it may be new variety or something new for your farm, I guess. Where do we get started?
From the planning side?
[00:13:38] Speaker C: This is kind of the messaging that is most important with the, the product that we work with. So grass, grass seed is, it's small seed compared to any other crop. So there's not a lot of stored energy in, in those little seeds. And their germination times and their times to take up water are much longer than most annual crops. So the, the species that we work with have germination times that range between kind of three to four days all the way up to three to four weeks where you have to have moisture available.
So all the things in agriculture that are important for getting seeds to grow are even more important with small grass seedlings. So seeding depth, compaction, just that that seed to soil contact are so important. And also with that slow time to germination, most other crops, if there's a companion crop being grown or whether it's weed, weed pressure, they get a jump on the grass seedling. So it's super important that we get good, good as good establishments as we can because it's just not that competitive.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: And as we get like into the, you know, if I'm just thinking about, you know, even the, the, the, the guarantee, the establishment guarantee, like what time frame are we looking at here to go out and see some activity, see this crop, you know, see this thing growing and, and getting a sense of, of how the stand is developing and, and yeah. How it's kind of starting off.
[00:15:28] Speaker B: Yeah. So with our guarantee, I believe we've got a date in there in August of letting us know what's going on. So I think that would be sort of a bare minimum as far as looking at it. To Ken's point, that definitely something, you know, they are definitely slower to get going. We do want to make sure that Growers don't just plant it, forget about it. A lot of the times that seems to be where we run into some trouble is it gets planted, it gets forgotten about till the fall or till they go to take their green feet off and realize you had a gopher or you had some other pest or the weeds have gotten out of control or out of stage.
There's a lot of limiting factors when it comes to forages. There's also a lot of options how you can deal with some of those things if you're on it early. So scouting is still important with a forage crop as much so as it is with your, your annual crops as well.
[00:16:17] Speaker A: And do you see like, is there a cover crop that is most common or more common or like in that, you know, first, first year, I guess. What are farms going with from a cover crop side?
[00:16:31] Speaker C: In Alberta, oats are very common. Any real cereal like our, our biggest advice from the COVID crop standpoint is to keep the, the seeding rates low.
It's been, historically it's been a commentary that seeding rates when you're seeding cereals on top of grass seed should be half of what a normal seeding rate is. But we found through the years half of any growers rate because every grower has a different rate isn't really the best planning. So we try to suggest to growers to keep their seeding rates below 30 pounds per acre of any cereal and then to have the grass seedlings as far away from that cereal as possible to give them a little bit space to grow. So usually that's, you know, when you have a row planted cereal, the grass seeds planted via floater broadcast or drilled in a different direction so it's not, not right adjacent to the cereal that's growing.
[00:17:35] Speaker A: All right, any, any other agronomic tips that I'm, I'm missing here. Anything from even like the, the weed control side or, or the fertility side. Like I'm assuming you're going and, and floating on some fertilizer later on at some point, maybe in the fall is, I shouldn't say anything like this out loud. Don't know agronomy stuff, but yeah, well,
[00:18:01] Speaker C: with grass, with grassing and if you have a cover crop, the fertilizer definitely can come later.
With nutrients that aren't real mobile like P and K. It's, it's a good idea to have them banded into the soil prior because they're going to be stable and they're not. It's, they're fairly efficient nutrients and they're not going anywhere. So they'll, they'll stick around for when, when the grass seed needs it.
For items like nitrogen, sulfur that are a little bit more unstable nutrients, it's, it's best to plan on applying them at a later date because again, as we mentioned, the grass seed is slow. Other things will use those nutrients before the grass seed. Well, so whether that's companion crop and you don't want the companion crop laying down on top of the seedlings or weeds, you don't want a big heavy weed crop because they'll use, they'll use the nutrients before the grass seed can get to it. So it's best to have the established grass seed before the fertilizer goes on. The other thing you mentioned there was weeds. We do like to mention too, that and most growers, and it's, it's a long history thing where growers put grass seed down and they never consider herbicide weed control.
They just put the grass seed down, put a cover crop on top and cross their fingers. There are some herbicide controls that actually do work very well for controlling the really abundant weeds you find in fields like lamb quarters and stink weed or volunteer canola. There's things, vermoxenol based herbicides that are really easy on, on grass seedlings and not that expensive. So we do like to mention that to growers to just give the grass seedlings the best opportunity to get going.
[00:19:46] Speaker A: All right, fair enough.
Now on Brett Young ca Like this forage guide is like, it's something like it's, it's, it's. Well, I was gonna say beefy, but that sounds pretty corny to say it like that. But there's a lot of, there's a
[00:20:03] Speaker C: lot of information in here.
[00:20:06] Speaker A: Looking for products, blend selector, establishment guarantees, all in here as well.
Is there anything in the forge guide that you know, someone tuning in is, you know, searching through this thing, Something that you kind of point out that hey, go, don't forget about this in the forge guide or check this out in the forge guide. Is there anything that stands out?
[00:20:31] Speaker B: I would say, like, honestly, I think just about everything. I think one of the things I've learned over the years too is even within our own staff there are, there's parts in that guide and there's things in that guide. Like you say there's a lot of information there and there's things that people forget are even in there.
So you know, everything that Kent has mentioned, economically, most of that information is in there somewhere. There's fertility charts, you Know, as far as trying to come up with what you think the best fertility plan is, there's also information as far as seeding rates as per your different soil zones.
And then there's a lot more detail to, you know, breakdowns by specific varieties, what varieties work well in areas.
So you can really, you know, dig into it as much as you want to, just to see, you know, if you're really looking for, you know, a forage in an area where you've got some sort of special conditions going on, you can make sure that you're picking the right grasses or the right legumes to do the job you want them to do.
[00:21:28] Speaker A: How about for you, Kent, anything else in the forge guy that stands out?
[00:21:31] Speaker C: I think we're pretty proud of the, the forge guide because we've added to it years in, years out with as much agronomic information as possible. So it's just a good tool to have more than just something to sell for us to sell grass seed with. It's. It's a handy tool to have in a reference manual. I personally use the fertility chart at least once a week because every situation, whether it's hay, pasture, silage, different compositions of forage being seeded is different soils, it's all different. So that fertility chart is a fairly handy thing to refer to as far as, as far as I'm concerned.
[00:22:16] Speaker A: You bet. Awesome. Appreciate that. I got one more here for you guys. Is there, it doesn't have to be alfalfa, but is there like, I know every farm is different, all soil condition, everything's different. But is there like your product, like you said there, like, oh, that's the one that, that I'm most excited about or that I, I talk about the
[00:22:35] Speaker C: most within, within alfalfa.
All those products you just mentioned, like you said, they are all different. They have different root types, they have different leaf types, they have different dormancy times. They have. There's a ton of differences if, like, if you're a grass dork. Yeah, for sure. There's ones that are your favorite in there.
Like, I, I like foothold. It's just a, it's a unique product. It's. It's got a creepy root, it's high expression, multi folded. It's like that thing doesn't exist for in the last 30 years, that combination of things. So that's a, it's kind of a variety. Like, but as Zing said, it's not great everywhere. Like, you need a use and your use has to fit the product. So I like the product, but it's gotta be in the right spot.
[00:23:25] Speaker B: I would have to agree with urine. Like 4440 is my go to. I mean, I have specific varieties in the alfalfa portfolio I like. But I would say every time I'm talking to somebody, it always comes back to a blended alfalfa product just works so well. You get talking about, you know, a specific field and it's got all these conditions and it matches perfect to, you know, one of the. A reload, for example, that's, you know, a branch root because we've got really high water table. But then you find out there's a saline corner and there's a sandy hilltop. And I just, I really like the, the blended certified variety alfalfa.
[00:24:02] Speaker A: All right. I don't know why that one just rolls off the tongue. The 4440. But the blend. 4440, but it's a beauty. Is there a spot like, you know, we go on crop tours to look at canola fields, you know, in the summer. I'm going to go check out my Brett Young canola plot and tours. This summer is. Can I do that as well for.
Yeah. Some of these forages. Can I go and check this stuff out somewhere in the summer?
[00:24:26] Speaker C: You can, but you're going to have to go for a bit of a drive, Ryan, because the, the, the plot, we have a very, very nice plot that is maintained by a guy that works for, for Brett Young, but it's just outside of Winnipeg. It's a great plot to go look at all the different species and varieties that we do offer. And we do like to take as many people as we can through it. Just, it's.
We don't have multiple locations. It's just the one that's kind of close to our plant, our headquarters in Winnipeg.
One other thing maybe they didn't ask or didn't mention with, with regards to forage species is along the lines of seed availability. And it's sure we have 40 to 60 species on our price list. And every year the availability depends on the seed growers that are contracted to grow those crops. Growing, growing, having, having good, good weather conditions and everything going right for them. So that's something with forage seed that we do have to. We have to work within. And there's always one, one or two items that are short in supply or not available every year. And we just kind of have to work around that and roll with the punches as we go. But, you know, the last couple years up in the piece, it's been very, very dry, and that's where most of the brome grass has grown. So brome grass has been a little bit short supply and the crop's been a little bit lighter and fluffier. But yeah, every year. Every year it's something. So it's.
There's a bug down in the alfalfa acres in the brooks country or, you know, reed canary grass kind of grows in a slough. And if it's. If it's dry in eastern Manitoba, we get less. Less reed canary grass. It's just there's always something, so.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: Fair enough, Fair enough. Okay, well, appreciate you adding that in, Kent. And I also will add in, I believe I was looking at some egg in motion pictures from last year. I think that you guys have a couple dandy plots at egg in Motion as well that guys can check out. So I know there was definitely canola plots. I thought I saw alfalfa there as well last year.
[00:26:39] Speaker B: Yeah, we do have a couple. There's a couple forages that we've maintained at that site. So definitely something to have a look at.
[00:26:49] Speaker A: Cool. All right. Anything else, Mark, that we're missing for today before I let you guys go?
[00:26:55] Speaker B: I don't know, I guess I think the only thing kind of triggered here just recently I just thought about is like, forages. A lot of guys are looking for rotation crops. They're looking for other options. Guys get frustrated with the market to hear peas up and down all over the place. Forages is kind of the original rotation crop, like it really is. It's something that grows exceptionally well in western Canada. You know, we're talking in Kent and I, most of our. Our knowledge and our background is on the hay or pasture side.
But forages across western Canada, there's pockets where there's really strong timothy export markets, there's pockets where, you know, we work with growers on the seed production side. So, you know, even for somebody that hasn't maybe grown forages or hasn't considered forages a part of their. Their farm, maybe this is a really strong potential rotation crop for you to look at. You know, whether it's seed production or it's hay or it's some sort of crop share to try and break up some of the disease cycles. You know, whether you're looking at issues with verticillium and canola, phenomyces and peas, there's just. There's numerous issues out there that for just kind of help with that rotation cycle as well.
[00:28:06] Speaker A: Yeah. And folks tuning in, I'll also just direct you to the great resource of brettyoung ca where you can get some information, get in contact with individuals like Kent. Mark, we've had Thomas on the show. Everyone's listed on there as well. Great resource. So if you want to go through figuring out how this could fit on your farm in 2026, getting ahead of this for 2027, a great spot to, to do that. So, yeah, thanks, Mark, for, for bringing that up as well.
All right, guys, you did fantastic. Thanks for joining the what the futures podcast for the well, looks like what the last week of March doesn't feel like it outside. I don't know about you guys. I'm freezing my butt off though today.
But yeah, appreciate you guys being on the show.
[00:28:52] Speaker C: All right, thanks. Thanks, Ryan, for having us.
[00:28:54] Speaker B: Nailed it, nailed it.
[00:28:57] Speaker A: There we go.
That's good.
[00:29:00] Speaker C: We're using that.
[00:29:04] Speaker A: Big thanks to Mark and Kent from Brett Young for joining me this week and covering all things Forges. I certainly a, you know, a spot I don't spend a lot of time in, but nice to get some, some perspective and learn something. All right, if you could do me a favor, hit that subscribe button wherever you're tuning in from. If it's on YouTube, go and hit that subscribe button for us. We're trying to get to 1300 subscribers. It was 1200 and 5090 the last time I checked. So I would appreciate that and also leave a review. Don't be shy. Send in a question. Ryanothefuturespodcast CA and you can check out all my projects. Ryan Den so certainly appreciate you hanging out with us this week. Also, big thank you to show sponsor John Deere. John Deere Operations center is a key, a key tool that we use on our farm when it comes to analyzing data and making decisions and efficiencies.
Go check more about John Deere Operations center at Deere ca or say hi at your local dealership and they will point you in the right direction. All right. From a crop marketing perspective this week, folks, the market's given us like a chance to breathe overall. And so I hope you're taking that time to perfect your crop marketing plan. Spending some time in the office, learning some new strategies, you know, getting ready for whatever this market gives you over the next days and weeks. There's lots of stuff going on, obviously.
Are we gonna go on a crazy run higher yet?
You know, if you start to look at it and look at the disruption in the Middle east and the disruption, pardon me, in getting, you know, diesel to Australia or fuel to Australia, getting fertilizer out of the Strait of Hormuz, the ripple effect, the implications that could be coming down the pipeline, you start to think of a longer term, maybe bullish scenario if production becomes an issue, less production. I'm going to actually have a guest from Australia join us on the show here. In the next few weeks, the price of Diesel went from $1.80 a liter to $3 a liter. And this morning I read that 500 gas stations in Australia are closed because they can't get supply. So we're going to dive into that in the next few weeks and learn a bit more from our Australian counterparts. All right, folks, that's it for me for this week from the what the Futures podcast. My name is Ryan. I'll see you guys Tuesday for a cup of coffee. Send in your questions. Guys, look forward to doing the live show here. What's that going to be? What, March 31st, something like that? Yeah, I look forward to that. And we'll see you guys all next week.
