Prairie Farm Research Articles

Women’s Garden Work, Agricultural Rehabilitation, and Gendered Knowledge from Below on the Canadian Prairies, 1930–46

This article considers the gardening work of prairie women in the context of farming difficulties and agricultural rehabilitation on the Canadian Prairies in the 1930s and 1940s. It is based on analysis of gardening coverage in the Western Producer (a prairie periodical aimed at English-speaking farm families) and engagement with the records of federal government officials involved in the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration and the Experimental Farms Service. The article establishes the significance of women’s gardening work and its important role in agricultural rehabilitation. In doing so, the article makes clear the ambition underlying agricultural rehabilitation, a federal government project intended to help protect permanent homes for settler families on the Canadian Prairies. Contributing to the understudied topics of rural experiences in women’s history and of women’s experiences in environmental history and the history of knowledge, the article illustrates the importance of considering gendered knowledge from below in grappling with the consolidation of agricultural colonization on the Canadian Prairies.

Comparison of Integrated Crop Rotation Systems in Western Canada

AbstractResearch has shown the benefits of diversifying crop rotations, yet many Prairie farmers keep their rotations short and simple with cereals and oilseeds or cereals and pulses being intensively grown in two‐year rotations. As western Canadian farms are pressed to increase yields while reducing inputs and the environmental impact of food production, growers need help to determine what crop rotations can help them achieve these goals and remain economically viable. This article reports on research evaluating yield and yield stability, nitrogen use efficiency, and net economic returns of six crop rotations in the Southern Prairies, Northern Prairies, and Red River Valley ecozones of western Canada. Earn 0.5 CEUs in Crop Management by reading this article and taking the quiz at https://web.sciencesocieties.org/Learning‐Center/Courses.

Community assembly of prairie farm ponds: build it and they will come, stock it and they won't

Dam construction affects freshwater ecosystems worldwide. While there is much focus on large impoundments, farm ponds are overlooked despite their near-ubiquity across human-altered landscapes. Within the Great Plains of North America, there are millions of farm ponds, yet little is known about the fish communities and factors structuring them. We propose a conceptual model where fish, amphibian, and crayfish abundances differ along a pond size and water permanency gradient and are further influenced by interactions among species. In the summer of 2021, we sampled 100 farm ponds across central Kansas, primarily on private land. Pond size and permanency explained community structure with smaller and less permanent ponds being dominated by amphibians and crayfish while larger ponds were dominated by stocked sportfish. Distribution modeling revealed a negative correlation between stocked fish and other community components indicating potential interactions. If we are to conserve headwater stream species, especially those that are threatened or endangered, strategies that integrate farm ponds seem necessary given their prevalence on the landscape.

“It is the Wild West out here”

This research builds on the emerging body of literature investigating the implications of changing land tenure relations in the Prairie Provinces, where over 70% of Canada’s farmland is located. Through an analysis of survey data collected in 2019 from 400 grain farmers, we address the following research questions: How are farmers experiencing changing patterns of land tenure and control at the local level? What challenges and opportunities do farmers face in these changing farmland markets? And, how has the entry of new actors (farmland investors) changed relationships between landlords and tenants? Our findings suggest that those farmers who are witnessing the financialization of farmland in their regions view this phenomenon with alarm. Furthermore, we show that those who rent from corporate investors are more often subject to landlord influence over production practices and pay higher rental rates than those who rent from other landlord types. Concern about farmland concentration is widespread among Prairie farmers, with a variety of negative effects identified, including increased competition over land and the decline of local communities. We recommend that future research probe how different investor types (individual vs. corporate and/or institutional) engage in land markets, examine the gender dimensions of landlord-tenant relations, and engage in analyses that challenge the current iteration of the private property regime.

Supporting native grasslands in Canada: Lessons learned and future management of the Prairie Pastures Conservation Area (PPCA) in Saskatchewan

Temperate grasslands are the most endangered and least protected biome in the world. Few significant parcels remain and strategies for ongoing protection are critical for conservation efforts worldwide. In southwestern Saskatchewan, three contiguous blocks of native grassland, known as the Prairie Pastures Conservation Area, are federally managed by Environment and Climate Change Canada. Previously, the 800‐km2space was managed by the Department of Agriculture as public rangeland in the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Agency (PFRA). We interviewed 11 individuals, including NGO representatives and pasture patrons, familiar with the PFRA at a native prairie/grassland conference to enhance our understanding of the importance of the agency and the lands in the province to them, as well as to Canada and globally. Themes that emerged included benefits of historic PFRA management, reservations about privatization of pasturelands, and worries about mismanagement. We take these themes and build them into our recommendations for what Environment and Climate Change Canada should do with the Prairie Pastures Conservation Area going forward: enhance Indigenous collaboration, establish a conservation network, and increase public use and awareness.

Our Pigs, Ourselves

Our Pigs, Ourselves

Economics and Emotion: The Ideological Debate Over Prairie Grain Marketing, 1973–1996

In 1943, the federal government proclaimed the Canadian Wheat Board the exclusive marketing agent for Prairie farmers' grain. Prairie farmers and politicians from all parties strongly supported this action. Yet by 1993, the question of how best to market grain, cooperatively through the single desk or individually in a private market, increasingly divided the Prairie agrarian community. The 1973 rapeseed marketing vote, the continental barley market, and the 1996 border-running protests against the Wheat Board's cooperative single-desk marketing show the rise in the rhetoric of individual freedom in grain marketing that divided Prairie farmers. These events demonstrate how the grain-marketing debate shifted from focusing on economic policy to ideological values.

Spilt Milk: COVID-19 and the Dangers of Dairy Industry Consolidation

Consolidation came later in the dairy industry than in other agricultural sectors. A long history of dairy farmer cooperatives owned by their farmer members and vertically integrated to produce and distribute fluid milk and cheese products staved off industrialized farming and horizontal consolidation. But by 1990, advances in technology and a change in antitrust regulation enabled investor-owned firms like Borden Dairy and Dean Food as well as large farmer cooperatives like DFA, Prairie Farm and Land O’Lakes to dominate the industry. Consolidation and the pursuit of economies of scale led to two inflexible and separate supply chains in dairy – one serving retail markets for consumers, the other serving commercial markets for institutional customers. The COVID-19 pandemic and economic lockdown revealed the lack of resilience and risks in a system dominated by a few large actors. Viable reforms in the dairy industry that limit the domination by powerful actors can achieve resilience and improve the ability of the dairy industry to respond to disruptions.

Trunk Posture Exposure Patterns among Prairie Ranch and Grain Farmers

ABSTRACTObjectives: Low back disorders (LBD) are the most common musculoskeletal disorder among farmers, and awkward trunk postures such as repetitive bending are often cited as a contributor. However, it is not clear whether trends of increasing mechanization in agriculture may be impacting the requirement for trunk-intensive tasks. This study compared the patterns of working trunk posture among prairie farmers during both machine-intensive and non-intensive work days.Methods: Forty-nine adult farm workers from 22 farms participated in this study. Individual and farm characteristics were documented via questionnaire. Trunk angles and velocities were measured with an I2M inertial sensor placed on the chest. Participants completed electronic posture assessments during up to three regular work days throughout the growing season for a total of 91 electronic posture measurements. Forward and lateral trunk bending patterns were expressed in three domains: magnitude, duration, and frequency.Results: Working tasks were categorized into driving, manual, and mixed. Driving was the most commonly measured task (52% of work days), and mixed tasks the least (12%). Both 90th percentile trunk flexion-extension angles and velocities were significantly higher for manual as compared to driving tasks. Participants spent 38% of their working time in trunk forward flexion ≥ 20°, which, according to previous epidemiological studies, may increase their risk for LBD.Conclusion: The directly-measured trunk posture exposure patterns in this study suggest that machinery-intensive workdays result in less awkward trunk posture and lower velocities. Increasing mechanization invites more research on the exposures associated with machinery operation and increasing automation.

Irrigation Infrastructure, Technocratic Faith, and Irregularities of Vision: Canada's Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration in Ghana, 1965–1970

Irrigation Infrastructure, Technocratic Faith, and Irregularities of Vision: Canada's Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration in Ghana, 1965–1970

Predicting Whole-Body Vibration Exposure in Canadian Prairie Farmers.

Direct workplace whole-body vibration exposure assessment provides ecological validity for evaluating health risk in epidemiological studies, yet it is complex and expensive in practical applications. Exposure prediction modeling could be a cost-efficient alternative to directly assessing occupational vibration exposures. The objective of this study was to model directly measured whole-body vibration exposures with predictors from machinery, farm, and self-reported characteristics among Canadian prairies farmers. As per ISO 2631-1, whole-body vibration data were measured on the seat surface at three axes (x, y, z), then summarized into vector sums of the root-mean-squared (RMS) acceleration and the vibration dose value (VDV). All candidate predictors were obtained via questionnaires and onsite observations. A total of 87 whole-body vibration measurements were collected from 40 male farm workers located at 21 central Saskatchewan farms. Using log-transformed RMS and time-standardized VDV outcomes, modeling started from the bivariate analysis where predictors with P-values < 0.2 were considered eligible for multivariate analysis. With random effects of 'farm' and 'farmer', a series of mixed-effects models were constructed through the manual backward elimination method. Final models were internally validated by 1000 bootstrapped samples. The RMS model explained 47.7% of the variance in the directly measured RMS vector sum, with 42.7% obtained from five predictors of 'horsepower', 'transmission', 'vehicle year', 'jerk/jolt frequency', and 'seat bottom-out frequency', while the VDV model explained 19.5% of the variance in the directly measured VDV vector sum, with 11.6% described by the same five predictors as the RMS model. Predictive ability of the RMS model among 1000 bootstrapped samples can be anticipated to range from 14.3 to 69.1%, which may be considered adequate as exposure assessment tool for uses of epidemiological studies. The percentage of variance explained ranged from 0 to 40.5% for the VDV model, which is not robust and therefore likely not appropriate for use in survey-based exposure prediction. Whole-body vibration exposure modeling remains valuable, but is challenging in farming; the described model variance may increase with a more comprehensive list of candidate variables collected and quantified at machinery, farm, and farmer level. Predictors identified in the current and future models may provide a better understanding of how whole-body vibration exposure is modified, guide farmer's future decision on updating equipment, and allow for the development and initiation of interventions.

Whole body vibration exposure patterns in Canadian prairie farmers

Whole body vibration is a significant physical risk factor associated with low back pain. This study assessed farmers’ exposure to whole body vibration on the Canadian prairies according to ISO 2631-1. Eighty-seven vibration measurements were collected with a triaxial accelerometer embedded in a rubber seat pad at the operator-seat interface of agricultural machinery, including tractors, combines, pickup trucks, grain trucks, sprayers, swathers, all-terrain vehicles, and skid steers. Whole body vibration was highest in the vertical axis, with a mean (range) frequency-weighted root mean squared acceleration of 0.43 m/s2 (0.19−1.06 m/s2). Mean crest factors exceeded 9 in all 3 axes, indicating high mechanical shock content. The vertical axis vibration dose value was 7.55 m/s1.75 (2.18−37.59 m/s1.75), with 41.4% of measurements within or above the health guidance caution zone. These high exposures in addition to an ageing agricultural workforce may increase health risks even further, particularly for the low back.Practitioner Summary: Agricultural workers are frequently exposed to whole body vibration while operating farm equipment, presenting a substantial risk to musculoskeletal health including the low back. Assessing vibration exposure is critical in promoting a safe occupational environment, and may inform interventions to reduce farmer’s exposure to vibration.

Investigating input combinations for field pea production

Field peas are an important pulse crop for Canadian Prairie farmers, accounting for approximately 3,650,000 seeded ac in 2015. The objective of the study was to determine (1) which individual agronomic inputs contribute most to field pea yield, (2) which combination of inputs produces the highest yield and economic return, and (3) how plant population, leaf and stem disease, crop maturity, and seed quality are affected by input interactions. Earn 0.5 CEUs in Crop Management by reading this article and taking the quiz at www.certifiedcropadviser.org/certifications/self‐study/787.

From Strangers to “Humanity First”: Canadian Social Democracy and Immigration Policy, 1932–1961

Founded in 1932, Canada's Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (ccf) brought into a single movement disparate elements that, until then, had shown little inclination to cohere: intellectuals from Central Canada, Prairie farmers, politicized workers, many of them of non-British background, and clergy inspired by the Social Gospel. United during the Great Depression by their shared critique of capitalism, these groups stood more broadly for workers' rights and social justice, two preoccupations that would carry into the issue of immigration. This article explores the thought of J.S. Woodsworth, the intellectual climate on the political left, and the constituent parts of Canadian social democracy to discern major factors and trends in the formulation of ccf positions on immigration policy. It invites greater scholarly reflection on the relationship between economic nationalism, especially the protection of the domestic labour market, and an emergent civic nationalism in mid-twentieth-century Canada.

Persistence of the Sulfonylurea Herbicides Sulfosulfuron, Rimsulfuron, and Nicosulfuron in Farm Dugouts (Ponds).

Sulfonylurea herbicides are applied at relatively low rates (3-40 g ha) to control weeds in a variety of crops grown in the prairie pothole region of south-central Canada. Because of their high phytotoxicity and the likelihood of their transport in surface runoff, there is concern about impacts of sulfonylurea herbicides to wetland ecosystems embedded in agricultural landscapes. In a previous study, dissipation half-lives (DT values) were determined for three sulfonylurea herbicides (thifensulfuron-methyl, ethametsulfuron-methyl, and metsulfuron-methyl), each possessing a hydrolyzable methyl ester linkage. In the current study, persistence of three sulfonylurea herbicides without a methyl ester linkage was determined in prairie farm dugouts (ponds). The dugouts were fortified with environmentally relevant concentrations (3.3-6.5 μg L) of either sulfosulfuron, rimsulfuron, or nicosulfuron. The order of persistence of these herbicides in dugout water from May and June to November and December was nicosulfuron > sulfosulfuron > rimsulfuron, with DT values of 75, 44, and 10 d, respectively. The lack of a methyl ester linkage in these herbicides did not significantly affect their overall persistence relative to those with the ester linkage. In all three dugouts, the decrease in herbicide mass in the water column from water loss via hydrological discharge to groundwater was minimal. The relatively long persistence of these herbicides in the water column of the dugouts reflects the stability of the sulfonylurea linkage to hydrolysis in weakly alkaline waters and indicates not only that microbial and photolytic degradation were low but also that there was little partitioning into sediments.

Canada in the Great Power Game, by Gwynne Dyer

Gwynne Dyer Canada in the Power Toronto: Random House Canada, 2014. 423 pp., $34.95 (cloth) ISBN: 978-0-307-36168-4For the past three decades Gwynne Dyer has been an incisive and often contrarian writer on international security affairs. Canada and the Power continues this tradition. It reads like a series of lectures delivered to a general audience interested in the evolution of the international system, and Canada's place in it, through the great conflicts of the twentieth century. The result is informative and accessible, if somewhat incomplete.Dyer mixes history-chronologically tracing Canada's participation in wars and the often tense periods of peace in between-with an analysis of political decision making and the public's evolving opinion of Canada's overseas engagements. Interspersed with this are quotations from the soldiers, diplomats, and statespeople who participated in and shaped Canada's transition from colonial dependence to what could be described as pseudo-independence from the whims and priorities of larger nations. Between the main chapters Dyer takes the reader on several counterfactual journeys, or excursions, in which he permits himself to ask and answer what might have happened had Canada not gone to war in 1914.Dyer's examination of the wars of the first half of the twentieth century reveals that Canada played the great game of nations because a healthy plurality of voters and the political class wished it so. The author seems uncomfortable with this, emphasizing the political headaches it caused for successive prime ministers who struggled to reconcile their own (and English Canada's) affinity for Britain with the cause of national unity. They were aware of the emergence of national interests that might be distinct from those of the imperial overlord but, recognizing that the times were critical, knew that Canada could not stand aloof-even at the price of stoking nationalism in Quebec or the resentment of prairie farmers. But just what the Great Power Game is (or was) is only vaguely defined, leaving the reader to wonder what motivates great-power behaviour, and how smaller states such as Canada could play the game to their own advantage.Dyer's suggestion that the First World War had no moral content (175) will strike some readers as contentious, but it deserves a fair hearing as we mark the centenary of that conflagration. His tale of how Canadian policymakers passed up opportunities to change the rules of the great game for the better will feel like a bucket of cold water. Whereas Canadians are apt to think of themselves as longtime supporters of collective security (i.e., the common duty of all nations to oppose, and if necessary reverse, naked aggression), Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King was clearly no fan of the League of Nations. Like his American contemporaries he did not appreciate the globalizing nature of security in the wake of the War.The game continued after 1945 as the great powers forged a more durable peace through the United Nations, of which Dyer writes approvingly, if not critically. He is at his provocative best when he tackles the excesses of the nuclear arms race and the fateful decision to acquire the BOMARC nuclear-tipped missile at a time when the manned bomber was being eclipsed by the threat of intercontinental ballistic missiles. …

Growing resistance: Canadian farmers and the politics of genetically modified wheat

In 2004 Candian farmers led an international coalition to a major victory for the anit-GM movement by defeating the introduction of Monsanto's genetically modified wheat. Canadian farmers' strong opposition to GM wheat marked a stark contrast to previous producer acceptance of other genetically modified crops. By 2005, for example, GM canola accounted for 78 percent of all canola grown nationally. So why did farmers stand up for wheat? In Growing Resistance , Emily Eaton reveals the motivating factors behind farmer opposition to GM wheat. She illustrates wheat's cultural, historical, and political significance on the Canadian prairies as well as its role in crop rotation, seed saving practices, and the economic livelihoods of prairie farmers. Through interviews with producers, industry organizations, and biochemical companies, Eaton demonstrates how the inclusion of producer interests was integral to the coalition's success in voicing concerns about environmental implications, international market opposition to GMOs, and the lack of transparency and democracy in Canadian biotech policy and regulation. Growing Resistance is a fascinating study of successful coalition building, of the need to balance local and global concerns in activist movements, and of the powerful forces vying for control of food production.

Growing Resistance by Emily Eaton

The short history of genetically modified (GM) crops in Canada has been defined by controversy, debates about health and environmental concerns, and deeply entrenched corporate control. The past fifteen years have seen numerous approvals of new GM crop varieties, while just a handful have been stopped from reaching the market. One of these unusual cases is the subject of Emily Eaton's new book Growing Resistance. In this compelling volume, Eaton questions why the introduction of GM wheat was met with such strong opposition from Canadian farmers, while GM canola had been widely adopted just a decade earlier. Her analysis goes beyond a cost-benefit assessment of the two crops to include their biological differences, and dig into the rich historical and cultural role that wheat has played for Prairie farmers. Taken together, Eaton argues, these factors explain the fervent public opposition to the introduction of GM wheat in the Prairies, and Monsanto's consequent decision to withdraw its request for government approval of herbicide tolerant wheat and discontinue its research and breeding program.

Profitable prairie restoration: The EcoSun Prairie Farm experiment

O ngoing conversion of grassland to cropland in the northern Great Plains, declining wildlife populations, and worsening soil and water quality prompted a South Dakota group to search for agricultural practices that would balance environmental concerns with farm economics. Thus was born the EcoSun Prairie Farm ( ), an experimental working farm based on the land ethic and philosophy of Aldo Leopold. EcoSun's primary objective was to see if converting cropland to native tallgrass prairie could simultaneously improve the environment—especially soil and water quality; prairie wetlands; and biodiversity, including wildlife—and provide sufficient income to support a farm family through the sale of grassland products. Six years later, EcoSun continues to sell native plant seed, hay, and beef, and to share lessons learned. As the restoration has progressed, many amphibians, game birds, and neotropical migrant birds have already returned to the farm, but an important measure of the project's long term success will be the number of producers that adopt the farming approach advocated and demonstrated by EcoSun. EcoSun was founded as a nonprofit organization by three faculty members at South Dakota State University and one research scientist from the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Mandan, North Dakota. These four serve on the…

Book Review:Growing Resistance:Canadian Farmers and the Politics of Genetically Modified Wheat

In Growing Resistance , Emily Eaton reveals the motivating factors behind farmer opposition to GM wheat. She illustrates wheat’s cultural, historical, and political significance on the Canadian prairies as well as its role in crop rotation, seed saving practices, and the economic livelihoods of prairie farmers.