An EFP isn't just good for the environment; it can make the banker happy too.
More value for farm production, improving crop and livestock production efficiency, minimizing financial liability and demonstrating to consumers that agriculture is a contemporary, proactive industry are among the added benefits producers across Alberta are crediting to the completion of an Environmental Farm Plan (EFP).
"A completed plan isn't necessarily going to put money in anyone's pocket this month or even this year," says Lloyd Marshman, a beef and grain producer from the Rockyford area who completed an EFP earlier this year. "But there is a real value in completing the process and having the certificate. If nothing else it just gives producers a handle on how their operations stack up from an environmental standpoint. But beyond that there are tangible economic benefits to be realized."
More than 5,100 Alberta crop and livestock producers have completed the free and totally confidential environmental farm planning process since 2003.
The benefits of an Environmental Farm Plan mean something different to each producer. For Quentin and Anne Stevick, owners of the Bar 15 Simmentals at Pincher Creek, creating off-site watering systems for their cattle - as identified as a management change in their EFP - is putting more pounds of beef on cattle that they estimate is worth about $50 per head.
The Stevicks compared the gains on four groups of cattle, all with same genetic makeup and all on the same type of pasture. The only difference was that two groups had access to troughs holding clean, fresh water drawn from dugouts by solar pumps. The other two groups drank directly from dugouts.
"We made a point of seeing what difference it did make," says Anne Stevick. "We saw an extra 50 pounds on calves that drank from troughs. That's roughly an extra $50 per head. Their mothers were healthier and more productive as well. We were truly surprised."
For Spirit River beef producer Christoph Weder, a completed Environmental Farm Plan is one tool included in the promotion package he and other prairie producers use as they market premium-priced, branded beef products through select retail outlets across Canada.
Paula Robinson, accountant and controller for the 10,000 acre Bar None Ranch beef and grain operation south of Calgary, views a completed plan as a sign farmers are doing their due diligence in reducing environmental risk.
"Making some changes as identified in the Environmental Farm Plan can be expensive, but it can also be expensive if you have to repair some damage caused to the environment," says Robinson.
Using an Environmental Farm Plan as a key to access federal/provincial funds that can be used toward environmental and production improvements appealed to Kyle Kohut, a Nanton area grain and beef producer.
Funds from the Canada-Alberta Farm Stewardship Program can be used by EFP participants to cover a wide range of improvements including up to 30 percent of the cost of global position systems that help improve herbicide and fertilizer application efficiency. "Reducing herbicide overlap, for example, will easily recover the cost of equipment in two years," says Kohut.
Completing an Environmental Farm Plan is a sign of the times, says Bob Prestage a long-time Camrose area beef producer. "It is common sense stuff," says Prestage. "It's the same requirement any other resource-based industry has to meet. When people ask me about environmental plans I say, 'Times have changed...have you?'"
Two new environmental newsletters will help Alberta farmers make decisions on environmental improvements on their farms and ranches. The two Report to Industry newsletters are available from the Alberta Environmental Farm Plan Company (AEFP), which administers the EFP program in the province.
The first outlines the most frequently asked questions producers have about completing an EFP. The second outlines details of how producers can access up to $30,000 per farm in new funding under the Canada-Alberta Farm Stewardship Program to making on-farm improvements. The newsletter outlines support is available in 26 crop and livestock production categories and outlines the process of applying for it.
Both newsletters are available free of charge through the AEFP Web site at www.albertaEFP.com.
This article is reprintable with credit to AEFP as follows "Reprinted courtesy of the Alberta Environmental Farm Plan Company; www.albertaEFP.com".
