A dozen or more Ontario farmers have been caught at the
border trying to smuggle U.S. pesticides, including Accent and
Classic, into Canada.They join Mervyn Erb and three Lambton county farmers waiting to see how they'll survive their trip through the courts. If Erb's case is any example, they've got a long wait. Customs officers raided Erb's Brucefield office in July, 1994, confiscating evidence they say provides Erb was in possession of illegally-imported farm chemicals.
Under the federal customs act, fines can be up to $500,000, and are far tougher than the $2,000 maximum under pesticide law.
Erb was in court March 28, and now says it looks as if the case will actually be tried this fall.
He says that because of publicity surrounding the charges, farmers tell him their experiences when he goes to farm meetings.
"I've had phone calls from about a dozen people who've been caught," Erb says. "For the most part, these were people who put a case in the trunk or in the back of the van, and they said they didn't have anything to declare.
"They took a big chance."
Yet Erb thinks more American chemicals are coming into Ontario than ever. "A Michigan dealer told me he was selling so much to Canadians, he thought the government must have opened the border."
Erb says farmer are importing Accent because they think it's safer than Ultim, the product DuPont chose to market in Ontario instead of Accent.
He says farmers are also importing Classic because they need help fighting ragweed in soybeans. "These farmers are spraying Classic at a quarter to a third of the label rate. I don't see how you can say they're hurting the environment."
The Fertilizer Institute of Ontario, whose members also sell most of the province's pesticides, estimates that farmers sprayed $10 million worth of smuggled chemicals in 1995. Institute manager Tom Sawyer says dealers are working out a new code of practice that specifically bars dealers from selling, storing or applying illegally-imported pesticides. Sawyer says the institute is also working with the Crop Protection Institute, which represents pesticide makers. "A lot is going on under the surface." As well, dealers are pushing the federal government to speed up reform of its pesticide registration system, so Canadian farmers will be able to buy new chemicals at the same time they start sales in the U.S.
Sawyer says the dealers are also talking to politicians, including a late March session on smuggled sprays with Ontario Agriculture Minister Noble Villeneuve. - TB
Mite damage stings local beekeepers
By CHRISTINA SELBY
The future for Ontario's $11-million-a-year honey industry looks bright - exports and prices are up. But the cloud overhead is a blight of mites which is wiping out hives across the country.
Canada is the world's fifth-largest honey producer. The U.S. recently imposed a quota on imports of honey from China, the world's largest honey producer, and Canada is expected to meet the shortfall.
World prices have jumped from 63 cents a pound last year to $1.25, in part due to drought in Argentina, the fourth-largest producer, and lowered production in China.
But in Ontario, the number of beekeepers has dropped from 4,500 to 4,300, according to provincial apiarist Doug McRory. Charles Parker, of Beamsville, cites poor prices but says the mites are mainly to blame.
Parker operates 2,600 hives out of Beamsville, with hives in 70 different locations. Twenty-five per cent of his income comes from renting out his hives for pollination of apricots, cherries, plums, apples, pears and strawberries. McRory says 12,000 to 15,000 hives are rented out yearly at $50 to $52 per hive. "Bees are an insurance policy for farmers," says Parker. Hives are moved into orchards and fields for 10 days to three weeks, while the blossoms are out, at a rate of one hive per acre, depending on the crop.
Three-quarters of Parker's income is from honey production. Every summer, Parker moves one-quarter of his hives up to New Liskeard in preparation for the honey flow, three weeks in late July or early August. The area has more cows than the Niagara fruit belt and therefore more clover and Parker says the move increases his honey production by 30 per cent. Beekeepers have been moving hives up to New Liskeard and surrounding areas since the 1940s, when research indicated production increases.
But the tradition of moving hives from orchard to field, and crop to crop, has also hastened the spread of the trachea and varroa mites. The trachea mites have been around longer, but are easier to control. The real danger is from the varroa mites, which feed on the hemolymph, or blood, of the bee, and will destroy a hive in three years if not treated.
The mites were first discovered in U.S. hives in 1987, spreading to B.C. initially, across the Prairies and now to Ontario. Quarantine zones were set up across the country, banning movement of bees in and out of infested areas and between provinces, but the spread continued.
An import ban on bees from the U.S., in place since 1987, was recently extended to December, 1997. While agreeing it was a preventative measure, Parker feels the time has come to lift the ban. "There is no good source that's affordable," making it difficult for beekeepers decimated by mites to restock, he says. Bees can be imported from Australia and New Zealand but transportation costs are prohibitive.
According to beekeepers in Western Canada, it is no longer a matter of keeping the mites out of Canada, but of controlling infestation. Parker has two treatment methods: formic acid and Apistan strips. The formic acid fumes will kill the trachea mite and some varroa mites. The Apistan strip, manufactured by Sandoz Agro Canada, Inc., is made of fluvalinate, which kills the mites when the bees brush up against it. Parker says it cost him $15,000 last year to treat his bees, including labour.
He would like to see another treatment on the market, since the bees will eventually build up a resistance to Apistan, "the only thing on the market", Parker says.
Les Goczan, manager of specialty products for Sandoz, says Apistan is 99.8-per-cent effective and has been on the market in Europe and North America for 10 years without any proven resistance developed.
He says the formic acid treatment is not as effective as Apistan, labour-intensive and potentially dangerous to beekeepers, since the vapour used to treat the hives can burn skin and cause blindness.
Goczan says Sandoz is investigating alternative treatments, including the use of plant derivatives.
Few sellers hit corn price bonanza
Those $5 corn prices sound great, but most of Ontario's 1995
corn crop has sold at an average $3.92 per bushel.
Last year ended up the same as every other year. Most farmers
sold their crops in the bottom third of the market.
Many corn farmers are now setting themselves up for bottom-third marketing with their 1996 harvests, says John DePutter, London-based market analyst. "This could be a year when it pays to aggressively forward contract," DePutter says. "My guess is, however, most farmers are cutting way back on their forward contracts."
DePutter and other market analysts agree that too many farmers sell this year's crop based on last year's market. They also agree it's a costly strategy.
Check-off statistics from the Ontario Corn Producers Association show farmers delivered 45 million bushels of corn in October and November. That's twice as much as they sold in the same months of 1994, even though crop size and harvesting conditions were roughly similar.
By the end of January, corn farmers had sold 72 million bushels, up from 44.5 million bushels in 1994. See Tables One and Two.
This year has had perhaps the biggest ever payback for corn in storage. It's also the year with some of the lowest levels of stored corn.
DePutter says it's because farmers saw that with crops in the early and mid '90s, it didn't pay to store. Based on that experience, they forward contracted last spring, and sold even more on rising harvest-time cash markets.
Corn growers are now looking at all the forward contracts they wish they hadn't signed last spring, and they're holding out for higher prices.
If 1996 doesn't mirror 1995, it will prove expensive. "We could see this market peak in May," DePutter says. "We're into a major climaxing phase."
Brian Doidge, economist at Ridgetown college, predicts that Ontario corn in the Chatham area will trade in a range of $3.75 to $4.20 a bushel this fall, with prices in the bottom end if the U.S. crop gets through this summer without drought.
For spring and summer, Doidge is predicting cash Chatham prices will range from $4.75 to $5.50 a bushel based on weather scares, and on when Ontario's bins run dry.
"That's the question everybody is asking," says Kevin Simp-son, broker for Richardson Greenshields at Kitchener. "Nobody knows how much corn is in the country."
Like other analysts, Simpson is predicting Ontario feed mills will have to import U.S. corn this summer, thereby putting even more upward pressure on basis. At the same time, however, Ontario corn will be crossing the border into the U.S., after having been pre-sold by farmers in December and January when they worried those prices wouldn't hold.
DePutter says 1996 is extra proof that farmers should take a long, hard look at their marketing prowess.
He recommends keeping a record of daily, or at least weekly, prices at local elevators. Then, farmers should calculate their own average-weighted price by multiplying the sales price times the bushels sold on each sale, and then dividing by total marketed bushels.
"It's important to compare your results against the market," he says. "If you're like most farmers, you'll see there's lots of room for improvement."
DePutter argues, however, that farmers don't have to become market junkies. Simple strategies, such as dividing corn pricing in five or six sales spread out over the year can eliminate much of the upside and downside price risk. Farmers who can't hold physical corn can buy options, he adds.
Simpson advises farmers to take a hard look at their marketing needs, much as they would if they were looking at whether to invest in T-bills or penny stocks.
"Some farmers are the equivalent of coupon clippers...they're willing to forego the possibility of markets moving up just to know their money is safe and secure in the bank," he says. "At the other extreme is the cowboy who'll risk everything he owns for a chance to hit the top."
Most farmers fit somewhere in between. Finding out exactly where, however, depends on knowing production costs, and also projecting debt payments and cash-flow demands. "It's also important to look at your priorities," Simpson says.