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AS A BOY I WAS SELF-DEFINED BY A
few things: How loud I was (quite), how
much I wanted to be like my older broth-
ers (very much) and how much I loved
rocks (more than anything).
For my eighth birthday, my parents
gifted me a rock tumbler. That weekend,
my dad and I headed down to a local lapi-
dary where I picked out a number of rocks
primed for a polish. I selected a range of
grits to pair with the rocks and I was away
to the races. I spent countless hours in the
garage, tumbling, preparing, categorizing
and—most enjoyable of all—thinking
about rocks. I was daily transfixed by the
tumbler’s repetitious drudgery and my
mind became adrift at sea, lost as the red
barrel spun endlessly. Once all my top-tier
rocks were tumbled, I started to snatch
rocks from the back alley and plunk them
into the tumbler. Refining rocks was my
business and business was good.
I feel a bit like my eight-year-old self
these days. There are rocks out there
ready for a polish in agriculture, and not
the ones kids pick up prior to seeding.
These rocks are new trade deals being
brokered by our government (
page 38
),
conversations about a Farmer Model and
what the future of end-point royalties and
breeding research in our country will look
like (
page 9
), as well as a new oil and grain
transloading facility in Northgate, SK
(
page 42
). As editor, I’m still practising my
favourite pastime—only now I’m polish-
ing ideas, rather than rocks. I want to see
what these rocks look like post-tumbler
and learn their true form. When I see
the prime minister shake hands with the
presidents of South Korea and the Euro-
pean Union to broker trade agreements,
I well with hope because of what it could
mean for Canadian agriculture. Just like
I selected a rock to tumble all those years
ago, the real excitement is during the
refining process—it’s about discovering
what comes out on the other end.
If Canada inks a trade deal with a new
country, will the average farm in Alberta
become more profitable? Is the new oil
and grain transloader in southeast Sas-
katchewan going to make border farmers’
lives easier? Are 100 farmers in a room
chewing the fat on the future of research
and end-point royalties in Canada going to
spur action and open communication?
All of these discussions are exciting for
me, but they are potentially game chang-
ers for farmers. As you load these ideas
and others into your mental rock tumbler,
you’ll find that the ones with real value
will shed their rough edges and produce
a true lustre five, 10 and 20 years from
now. Some of my prize porcelain pebbles
started out as forgotten alley rocks, cov-
ered in dirt.
Tumbledown
EDITOR'S
MESSAGE
Winter
2015
Grains
West
6
BY TREVOR BACQUE
PUBLISHERS
Lisa Skierka & TomSteve
MANAGINGEDITOR
Trevor Bacque:
tbacque@grainswest.com
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Bryan Adam
Cole Christensen
Lynn Jacobson
Jason Lenz
Greg Porozni
Victoria Russell
Greg Stamp
JohnWozniak
SALES&PRODUCTIONCOORDINATOR
TommyWilson:
twilson@grainswest.com
STAFFWRITER
Jeremy Simes
COPY EDITOR
Tiffany Sloan
CONTRIBUTORS
AAFC, University of Alberta, Bayer CropScience, Trevor
Bell, Kendall Bevans, Big Rock Brewery, Stan Blade,
Ceres Global Ag, Tara Davidson, Jeff Davis, de Bruin
Engineering, Delores DeRudder, Ian Doig, Jon Driedger,
Sydney Duhaime, Electric Umbrella, Maureen McNamee,
GlenbowMuseum, Gloria Gingera, Peter Gredig,
LandLand, Lee Hart, Andrea Hilderman, Michael Interis-
ano, Brian Kennedy, Janet Krayden, Andy Kirschenman,
Anne Pratt, Frank Robinson, Scott Rollans, Jill Thompson
and SarahWeigum
GrainsWest
magazine is a joint venture owned and
operated by Alberta Barley and the AlbertaWheat
Commission.
GrainsWest
is published four times per
year by theGrainsWest Publications
Society, an autonomous, incorporated body.
GrainsWest
is published at:
#200, 6815 – 8 Street N.E.
Calgary, AB T2E 7H7
Phone:
(403) 291-9111
Toll-free:
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Email:
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For subscriptions, email: subscriptions@grainswest.com
Omnemmovere lapidem.
Volume 2, Issue 1
Contents copyright 2014 by GrainsWest
Publications Society, whosemembers include Alberta Barley and
the AlbertaWheat Commission. No part of this publicationmay be
reproducedwithout express written permission fromGrainsWest
Publications Society.
On thecover
With such a wild year for grain quality in
the books, it made sense to have our cover
story examine grading. Our cover image
was created by Landland’s Dan Black and
Jessica Seamans, two talented illustrators
residing in the northern United States,
whose style lent itself well to encapsulat-
ing how making the grade this year feels
like a game of chance.