Smith tree farmers help make happy Christmas memories

by Kathy Birt
Smith’s Christmas Trees, on the Toronto Road in Mayfield, P.E.I., is a family farm that’s been progressively growing since 1968, when now-retired David Smith planted his first 1,000 trees. 

“You have to be patient,” said David, explaining that it can take 10-12 years to grow a good-sized Christmas tree. Sitting in his Hope River home, he and his son Kevin told the story of this 52-year-old family business that Kevin and his brother Allison took over in 2019. 

Every year since 1968, David continued to plant at least 1,000 Balsam fir. Some years he planted more – as many as 4,000.

“Kevin was always around the farm working,” said David, explaining that the trees must be fertilized and sheared in the summer to achieve shape and fullness.

“We do a lot of trimming and it is all done by hand with a machete-type shearing knife,” said Kevin. “This is the most important part of the tree growth.”

David’s wife Shirley always took care of the book work and has also done her share of shearing, not to mention keeping the crew fed and hydrated.

“She brought coffee or pop for our breaks, and our meals were always ready on time at home,” said Kevin with his mother close by nodding in agreement. 

Allison, who operates a summer tourist business, makes sure he is around to work with Kevin on the Christmas tree farm during the busy holiday season. 

Kevin Smith, co-owner of Smith’s Christmas Trees in Mayfield, P.E.I., stands next to one of thousands of Balsam fir trees growing on the farm, which his father David established in 1968. (Kathy Birt photo)

In 2019, the Smiths cut their first trees on Nov. 26, but cutting began earlier in November this year due to high demand.

Because of the pandemic, more people are staying home on the Island this winter and are eager to celebrate the holiday season after months of doom and gloom.

“People are going to go all out for Christmas,” said Kevin. “No one is going south due to COVID-19, so we are looking at a banner year with these extra snowbirds staying in P.E.I.”

They had customers coming to the farm before November with plans to tag a tree and return later to cut it down. “There is a trend back to the U-cut,” said Kevin. 

And it’s not just local demand that’s increased this year.

“We’ve had requests as early as Nov. 1 from south of the border,” said David, noting that they’d already shipped Balsam fir to Virginia by mid-November.

He added that fires in Oregon affected Christmas tree operations in that state. “A buyer from down there sent a rep to the farm to tell us they will take all the trees they can get and with an increased price,” said David.

In the meantime, Kevin was busy preparing for the influx of on-farm customers and gearing up the tree lot in Charlottetown.

“We keep a couple of hundred trees cut at all times,” said David.

The tree lot in Charlottetown is set up in the Canadian Tire parking lot each year. It’s manned by the Smith family’s hired man Donald Doiron.

“He has been with us 40-45 years,” said David, adding that Doiron mans the tree lot from dawn until dusk. “It doesn’t happen very often to have an employee for that long. It worked out perfect for us. He is a terrific worker.”

Kevin said there are more than 50,000 trees growing on the farm today. He added that most customers prefer a tree that’s seven to eight feet in height, and that the average tree costs $40.

“These have been the most popular, with a few over eight feet,” he said. “If we do community trees, they could be up to 14-15 feet.”

However, tree size trends change with housing trends. “We have a lot of apartment buildings and condos going up on the Island, so there is a trend to a smaller tree that we are noticing in the past year,” said Kevin.

He noted that fundraisers are a big part of their holiday season business. The fundraisers involve partnering with schools, community groups, and sports teams.

“They sell certificates for trees and the buyer then exchanges that certificate for a tree on our farm,” said Kevin, adding that schools use their profits to fund initiatives such as school bands and lunch programs. 

Christmas wreaths, which are in high demand, have also always been sold at the farm. Kevin and his wife Stephanie took over making the wreaths about seven years ago. “We also sell branches to other businesses for making wreaths,” said Kevin.

Most years, the Smiths have the sales area in their barn decorated and ready for picture-taking and offering treats and hot chocolate to the kids.

“Parents enjoy the hot chocolate, too,” said Kevin, adding, “This year we had to wait for approval (for decorating) due to COVID-19.”

Kevin said some families bring a photographer and get a family photo taken when they get their tree. “We’ve even had a marriage proposal by a Christmas tree,” he added with a grin.

All good news to Kevin and his brother Allison, who spent many happy childhood years around the family Christmas tree farm and are looking forward to a busy and profitable future.

N.S. dairy farmers still growing after more than 50 years

by Dan Woolley
John Vissers has experienced an eventful 53 years since his family migrated from Aylmer, Ont., to a dairy farm outside of Stewiacke, N.S.

His father Lambertus (Bert) – who died in 2015 at the age of 93 – bought the property, now known as Winding River Farms, on the Alton Road in 1967. That was one year after John’s uncle Peter led the way to Nova Scotia with his purchase of a farm in nearby Shubenacadie.

 After immigrating to Canada from Holland in 1954, John’s parents operated a grocery store, a cold storage facility, and a dairy and tobacco farm in southern Ontario.

 Once settled in Nova Scotia, in 1968, John’s father converted their farm’s 40-cow tie-stall barn to a free-stall operation and added a milking parlour.

 In the early years, the challenge was to grow the farm by clearing a lot of woodland to open fields for forage crops and pastures, not to mention building construction. “Every year, we added a new piece on the barn or built a new barn,” said John.

 In the early 1970s, they had to rent a barn for their heifers following a barn fire. But they then built a pole barn and rehoused their heifers there in 1973.

CORN SILAGE

One of the other early innovations Bert tried out was growing corn for silage. “There was very little grown at that time,” said John, explaining that the available varieties in those days were a challenge to grow in this region.

 Since then, he noted, corn varieties have come a long way and varieties are being bred for Atlantic Canada that require 2,200-2,300 corn heat units.

 His father’s focus was on increasing his milk quota base, which meant an emphasis on growing enough feed for the farm’s dairy herd.

 When John and his brother-in-law Eli Harbers took over the farm in 1983, John said “our focus was more land improvement through tiling and land clearing and a lot of stone picking to get our land base built properly.”

 He said the land improvement reduced their need to buy extra feed.

 COW COMFORT

Regarding herd management, John said their end goal is to minimize labour while improving cow comfort and longevity. 

 Their current milking herd housing was designed with those three objectives in mind and some cows in the herd have ear tags indicating they’ve been through eight to nine lactations. “Years ago, you were lucky to average three lactations because the old barns were hard on cows,” said John. “There were more chances of them being injured.”

 In 2014, they moved their milking herd into new housing, expanded from a heifer barn they built in 2003. The building is now more than 400 feet long and covers 40,000 square feet with a drive-through alley down the centre.

 John said that milking robots in the expanded barn have also improved the on-farm lifestyle by minimizing the labour to milk cows. That frees up time for more efficient fieldwork and cropping.

 The milking herd housing is also fitted with headlocks, which makes it easier to handle the cows.

FARM TRANSFER

In 2012-2013, Winding River Farms underwent an intergenerational transfer, with John’s son Chris and Eli’s son Bert assuming the farm’s management. “So, they are the new bosses,” said John. “The only difference is instead of me telling them what to do, they tell me. Eli and I are now semi-retired.”

 John said the family worked with a couple of consultants for a few years before the transition.

“We had our accountant and lawyer do most of the planning,” he said. “We had to figure out what was doable, and we had to provide for our retirement, and the farm still has to function. We kept our equity in the farm, paying it out gradually over 30 years.”

 He said that approach should enable the farm to modernize in the ways it will need to be successful in future years.

 John said the big infrastructure expansion to 40,000 square feet happened after the intergenerational transfer because the old milking herd barn needed to be replaced and the modernization met the needs of himself, Eli, Chris, and Bert. The old barn now houses dry cows and heifers, and the old milking parlour has been converted into a calf feeding facility.

 There are some 320 head in the Winding River Farms herd. They’re milking 170 cows, 40 of which are first lactation milkers.

The farm has three milking robots, one of which is reserved for the first lactation cows. John said the milking herd averages 41 litres per day.

MORE EFFICIENT

“Everything we do is to make us more efficient,” said Chris. 

 Besides the expanded barn for the milking cows, John noted that other recent infrastructure improvements include new storage bins for grain, soybeans, and canola, which gives them more flexibility in cropping management.

 “We are farming just under 900 acres, owned and rented,” said Chris, adding that they grow native grasses, clover, alfalfa, corn, soybeans, canola, and Winter wheat. They sell surplus corn, soybeans, and Winter wheat to other farmers.

 Winter wheat is ideal as a cover crop on fields with erosion problems.

 As for the farm’s machine and vehicle fleet, John said they try and keep it to “a reasonable number.”

 They hire a custom contractor for combining.

“We have our own self-propelled machine for corn and forage harvesting, plus we do some custom work for corn harvesting in the fall,” said John.

TIGHT MARGINS

 They would rather buy replacement parts than new equipment.

“We have replaced the coulters several times on our old disc,” said John. “The price of equipment these days scares growers. You don’t buy anything for under $40,000.”

 His son agreed.

“Our margin is getting tighter every year,” said Chris. “Costs are creeping up and there is not any more money for what you are doing. Once you have paid for your barn, there isn’t much left over. You can’t stop spending money. If you go through a year without spending money, you only increase your future expenses.”

 John added, “We always try to find ways to increase our efficiency.”

 As for field inputs, Chris said, “We spread liquid and solid dairy manure, but we have also used some chemical fertilizers. We have also used chicken manure when it is available and some amendments of wood ash, lime, Enrich (amendment), and compost from a landfill.”

 John noted that Winding River Farms won Nova Scotia’s Farm Environmental Stewardship Award in 2015. “We are always conscious of keeping the fields sustainable over the years,” he said. “Our goal is to always keep our land base so it stays productive.”

They also maintain riparian buffer strips around the banks of the Musquodoboit River and McNutt Brook, which flow through their farm’s pastures and fields, to protect Wood turtle habitat.

Forage shortages force some farmers to make hard decisions

by Emily Leeson
As winter approaches, the consequences of the hot and dry summer of 2020 are still playing out for some producers in Atlantic Canada. Throughout the region, lower than average forage crops are now forcing some to make hard decisions as the winter months and shortages loom. 

“All of the Maritimes seem to have been affected, but some areas did get timely moisture and are a bit better off than most,” said Amy Higgins, industry coordinator with the Maritime Beef Council. Reports suggest that New Brunswick is dealing with the worst of the situation.

Higgins said she suspects that many producers in the region are looking for additional forage at reasonable prices. 

“There seems to be some fairly large variance from a supply-demand curve, which has seen some quality forage having a ‘for sale’ sign on it at higher prices than we’ve seen in recent years,” said Higgins. “Some producers are certainly looking at what they are overwintering and maybe toeing a harder line in their culling decisions this fall and through the winter.”

On P.E.I., Bertha and Vernon Campbell of Mull Na Beinne Farms in Grahams Road said their second cut was almost non-existent. As dairy farmers, the option of selling off animals – although not entirely uncommon – doesn’t really work for producers who are working to fill their quota.

“It is not really a solution,” said Bertha Campbell. 

Across the Northumberland Strait in Nova Scotia, Sonny Murray, field crops specialist with Perennia Food and Agriculture Inc., said his province’s forage crops have managed relatively well despite the challenges of the past season. Murray said Nova Scotia didn’t fare as badly as P.E.I. and New Brunswick.

“There were a few farmers taking extra late cuts of forage off of cereal regrowth and forage fields to be rotated to cereals and corn next spring well into October and November this year to try and fill some of the demand for forages,” said Murray. “There were also some corn stalks that were baled after grain harvest to fill demand for feed and bedding. This is normal in parts of the Midwest U.S. but very rare in the Maritimes.”

Ann Huntley of Moon Tide Farm in Canning, N.S., said they brought in their first cut about a month earlier than they normally do with the hopes of a second cut. Although that ensured they got what they needed and were ready in advance, the second cut didn’t pan out. The conditions just weren’t there for the crop at that point.

Huntley said many other Nova Scotia producers are likely in a similar situation. “They got what they need but not a cushion,” she said.

Newfoundland and Labrador seems to have escaped the worst of the dry conditions. In fact, the province’s Department of Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture reports that the second cut of the forage crops in July and early August did recover despite the dry weather, with average to slightly better than average yields.

“Exceptionally high yields of cereal grains were also noted across the province this year,” said department spokeswoman Linda Skinner.

That wasn’t the case in New Brunswick. 

Cedric MacLeod, executive director of the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association and owner of Local Valley Beef in western New Brunswick, said producers in the region have been struggling. 

“Everyone probably bought a little bit of feed – even just to get through the pasture season because it was so dry,” he said. “Pastures ran out quick.”

Winter shortages are pretty much a guarantee in much of New Brunswick.

“That’s where the decision comes in: do you move cows and reduce the herd or buy expensive feed?” said MacLeod. 

Bringing in forage from elsewhere means absorbing the extra cost of not only buying it but also transporting it. While MacLeod said there’s certainly pockets relatively nearby with extra forage for sale – in parts of P.E.I., the Antigonish area of Nova Scotia, and in the Eastern Townships of Quebec – it’s still costly for producers to bring it home.

He said he’s been hearing about cull rates among New Brunswick beef farmers of 15-30 percent. Many brought calves to market early when prices were still strong. But that situation is starting to change, with prices dipping as more producers decide to cull herds because they anticipate winter feed shortages.

MacLeod said some producers are looking into alternative feed solutions instead of culling herds because they’ve invested so much in their cattle’s genetics. “They’ve bought standing corn and made corn silage, which is a little bit unique,” he said. “We see that sometimes in Ontario. Not so much down here. But it was so desperate dry that guys had no other choice.”

MacLeod said this year’s weather is still a concern for future forage crops.

“To be perfectly honest, I just hope this weather gets cold again as soon as possible,” he said, explaining that a mild spell in late fall – such as the region has experienced – can cause forage crops to break dormancy and become susceptible to winter kill.

Even for those areas of the region where producers were able to salvage what forages they needed from an unforgiving season, much remains to be seen.

“The bigger issue is that when cow herd numbers go down, they generally don’t slingshot back in the next good year, so that would be the concern long term,” said Higgins. “The flip side of that is sometimes a few hard culling years will improve the quality and productivity overall because some of those cows with reproductive or performance issues will naturally be the first ones to go.”

Protected production a solution amid climate change chaos

by Talia Plaskett
As we reflect on the 2020 growing season, there is one undeniable conclusion: the climate is changing. Amongst the chaos of labour shortages and a global pandemic, farmers were faced with high temperatures, intense humidity, and a dramatic reduction in rainfall. 

A changing climate means a new suite of conditions for farmers to deal with. Not only are we talking about unpredictable rain, temperatures, humidity, and frost, but evolving populations of pests and diseases as well. Insects and fungal and bacterial diseases are getting harder to manage. Plants are preoccupied with adjusting to abiotic stresses and pests are reproducing faster and more often due to more favourable conditions. 

However, amid all this chaos lies a solution: protected crop production to the rescue!

Protected crop production is the use of growing structures to shelter your crop. These structures can range from low tunnels to glasshouses to full-on indoor agriculture buildings. Each level of protection comes with an added degree of control over your growing space and the crop itself. By controlling the environment, you can better control how the plant grows, how fast it grows, and what your total yield will be. 

One of the main benefits of protected production is the capacity for temperature control. This will vary depending on the type of structure you use, but there are significant benefits to employing even the most basic level of protection.

Caterpillar tunnels/low tunnels are the cheapest, most basic structures you can use. Instead of having your growing season cut short by late snowfalls and early frosts, the crop is protected and you’re able to take advantage of the shoulder seasons. These tunnels are typically easy to install and relatively cheap in the grand scheme of protected agriculture.

As you increase the complexity and the isolation of your growing space from the outdoors, you increase the ability to control the temperature. Winterized hoop houses, glasshouses, and full-on indoor agriculture entertain the possibility for year-round production. 

Growing structures also serve as a barrier to rain. Any berry or fruit grower knows the perils of a huge rain event on ripened and soon-to-be ripened berries, which can include the onset of moulds and rots, a massive upswing in water uptake causing the fruit to crack, and physical damage to the fruit as raindrops pummel it. Any degree of coverage, even a basic umbrella-style system, significantly decreases the loss of fruit due to water damage. 

Because protected structures shelter crops from rain, growers using them must install irrigation systems. Although more frequent irrigation is necessary in an indoor space compared to an outdoor irrigation system, the water is used much more efficiently in protected crop production. The accompanying table, at lower left, illustrates this point quite nicely. 

The creation of a barrier between the outdoors and your growing space limits the entry of a handful of pests. Not only is it more difficult for large critters such as deer, porcupines, and raccoons to sneak in for late-night snacks, it also restricts access for birds and certain types of insects. For those that can get into the space, there are management options available to reduce population sizes and damage.

There are many benefits associated with protected crop production. Plants grown in a regulated, well-suited environment can allocate their resources to producing fruits and vegetables, and are less susceptible to disease pressure. By minimizing the uncertainty surrounding external conditions, you can better predict your crop outputs and have more control over how they’re grown. You can also rest easy knowing that your inputs are being used to their maximum efficiencies compared to an uncontrolled environment.

Protected crop production will be an important tool for producing food in the future. With an increasing focus on resource efficiency while dealing with the reality of feeding an expanding population, growing indoors is a good alternative to traditional agriculture. 

(Talia Plaskett is a protected crop specialist with Perennia Food and Agriculture Inc.)