What used to be a good business practice takes on a whole new level of importance in management and due diligence
Imagine the following situation. You're a canola producer who has discovered that your soil contains clubroot, a disease that could prevent you from growing your canola crops for the next four or more years. At the same time, you have an energy company working on leased land on your property.
A debate follows over which party brought the soil-borne disease onto the farm: yourself or the energy company. As it turns out, they have records showing that they practiced due diligence by cleaning their equipment between fields. You don't. It becomes a matter of your word versus theirs.
With soil-borne diseases such as clubroot becoming an increasing concern to Alberta producers and more and more energy company activity taking place on farmland, this scenario is not an unrealistic one. However, two key practices exist that can help producers avoid this situation, says Doon Pauly, a crop specialist with the Ag-Info Centre of Alberta Agriculture and Food (AF).
"Cleaning equipment between fields is key to preventing the introduction of soil-borne disease and problem weeds into a field," he says. "Although it is often a time consuming process, it can help avoid a situation that could be devastating to the profitability of an operation. And in many cases today, it's become a legal requirement as well."
The second step is to record each time equipment is cleaned between fields. "Keeping regular records is just a good general practice," says Pauly. "Energy companies will often have Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) pertaining to cleaning equipment and record keeping, so it's a good idea to show due diligence by doing so as well."
From a production perspective, there are two major categories of risk that cleaning equipment between fields can tackle, says Pauly. The first, and most serious, is soil-borne disease. The second is weed control, which Pauly says allows a certain degree of discretion in the intensity and frequency of the cleaning.
When it comes to soil-borne disease, Pauly says the "big one" is clubroot in canola. It was first identified in Alberta in 2003 in the province's black soil zone near Edmonton, but has more recently been discovered in isolated incidents in other soil zones as well. "In soils where clubroot is established, canola can only be grown once every four or more years," he says. Making matters worse is the fact that clubroot is easily spread through even small amounts of soil transported between fields.
The Province of Alberta legislates clubroot through the Agricultural Pest Act, which enforces the cleaning of equipment that has been in contact with soil identified as containing the disease. The Act also gives a municipality the right to shut down operations where clubroot has been identified.
New weeds are often the result of seed brought into a field on harvesting equipment, although they can be brought in by seeding and tillage equipment as well, says Pauly.
When it comes to cleaning equipment as a weed control practice, he says the overall situation is generally less severe. This depends, however, on the kind of farming being done.
"Seed growers, for example, invest a lot of time, effort and value into their seed crops. If their seed is rejected because of weed factors, it's a major economic blow. For the average commercial grain farmer, it may mean a little more dockage but the income loss is usually not as dramatic. For this reason, seed growers are generally quite diligent when it comes to regularly cleaning equipment between fields."
In the case of certain noxious weeds, however, there are legislative factors at work that all grain and oilseed producers should be aware of. "Noxious weeds fall under pest management legislation, which means Agricultural Service Boards have the right to ensure compliance," he says.
The good news about cleaning equipment is that it is usually a fairly basic process. The bad news is that there are few methods of doing so that do not require a significant time commitment and few tools available to help make it less time consuming.
Some methods of cleaning seeding and tillage equipment include steam cleaning and spraying with a diluted bleach solution, says Pauly. However, he says perhaps the easiest method is to hammer each shank until loose soil is knocked off or to scrape it off with a shovel. "Unfortunately, even this method can be a time consuming process. And if the shanks are gummed up with mud, it can take considerably longer," he says.
Cleaning harvesting equipment such as combines can be even more of a challenge. "It may be a matter of sweeping, vacuuming or blowing out the combine or, in some cases, even washing it out with water or a bleach solution."
When it's not a matter of legislation, deciding on the frequency of cleaning equipment is often a matter of risk assessment, says Pauly. Developing an Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) can help producers make these choices. "An EFP helps producers walk through their operations and identify environmental risks and opportunities for improvement. In cases where producers cannot tackle the risk completely, it can help them identify ways to at least reduce the risk."
Another BMP encouraged by the EFP program is consistent record keeping. In the context of cleaning equipment between fields, it's one that can play a positive role in a producer's relationship with energy companies working on land leased from the producer, says Pauly.
"In cases where energy companies are working on farmland, there can sometimes be debate over which party introduced a disease or new weed into a field. This is why it's a good practice for producers to not only clean equipment between fields, but record when and where they did so as well. Energy companies will often have Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on cleaning equipment and recording this activity. It's a matter of due diligence for both parties."
Information on legislation pertaining to cleaning equipment between fields is available from Agricultural Service Board offices throughout the province. For contact information on Ag Service Board offices in your area, contact the Ag-Info Centre toll-free by calling 310-FARM (3276). For information on the EFP program, visit the Alberta Environmental Farm Plan Company (AEFP) Web site at www.AlbertaEFP.com or call the AEFP toll-free line in Alberta at 1-866-844-2337.
This article is reprintable with credit to AEFP as follows "Reprinted courtesy of the Alberta Environmental Farm Plan Company; www.albertaEFP.com".
