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I’m sitting in my mom’s hospital room, and the place smells of sweet clover and alfalfa. I hadn’t seen Mom smile for some time like she did when I brought her the bouquet. A true farm woman, Mom loves the smell of a meadow in bloom.

At home Dad is looking through Mom’s purse for the cheque book and debit cards. Mom’s always done all the banking and handling of the money. Dad knew more or less what was going on, but she did the actual stuff. From one moment to the other she’s out of the picture – the stroke left her without the ability to speak or communicate other than nodding or shaking her head. It’s a reminder to me, and to many of you, to make sure our partners are aware of banking procedures, important passwords, important payments. It can make life easier for the other in an emergency – and that can happen at any age.

The doctor asked the family, mainly Dad, to fill out a form concerning desired action taken if Mom’s heart stops, and also the level of care (especially whether life support should be included). Dad could fill the form out with good conscience. He and Mom had discussed this eventuality with each other. Would you know what to do? Even better would be a personal directive completed while healthy, for the event that you are suddenly unable to speak for yourself.

A friend of ours lost his wife some time ago in an accident. They had never talked about death, and what they would want the other to do. The friend was at a loss – there was no preparation for him. It’s not about worrying about the other dying or falling seriously ill. It’s just about being smart, and taking some simple steps to make things easier if something does happen.

Is there an updated will? Do you need life insurance or disability insurance? How would you manage if one of you is seriously ill and needs care in a hospital or home? That can run into a lot of money.

These are things we’ve been faced with in the last months with the heart attack and stroke of my father-in-law a few months ago (he survived both but is in the care home now along with my mother-in-law), and now again with my mother’s serious stroke. It’s hard enough being left alone at home, like Dad is now. It helps if the biggest problem is finding the cheque book.

One more thing: are you developing relationships that will carry you through a tough time? It’s been really special, in both my father-in-law’s case and mom’s, to see how the families rallied together in the crisis. It’s also heart warming to sit at their bedsides and receive the many visitors that want to greet them. Both have built up extensive caring networks over the course of their lives. It’s paying off big time. This isn’t a time to be left alone. Make sure you won’t be either.

Instead of writing stories and canning pears and prunes in Switzerland, I am chasing my brother across a Canadian pea field. I’m operating the John Deere 9600 combine and Fred is on the swather ahead of me. The first born, as the Zambians would call me, and the last born (Fred) are harvesting the crop on the home farm in Cecil Lake, B.C., which Fred took over from my parents some years ago.

My mother had a massive stroke a week ago, and I returned to Canada early to be with her. It feels good to run the combine, do something productive, something ‘normal’ during this time of family crisis. I ran the same combine for Loren Koch in Westlock for three harvest seasons, so am quite at home on the machine.

It’s not the pea crop Fred hoped for. It’s taking too long to fill that combine hopper. The Peace Country (area of northern British Columbia around the Peace River) started out with good spring moisture. But since June, there have been only spotty and erratic rains. Fred will be lucky if he has more than 25 bushels per acre. He thinks the field is a case for crop insurance. The peas are grading No.3 human consumption. So at least the price will be decent – No. 1 would make over Cdn$8.00/bushel.

The barley did a little better, averaging 50 bushels per acre. That’s not a good crop either. Fred is a dairy farmer, so this is part of his feed supply. For him it is more important to get a good silage crop though, which he did, profiting from the early summer rains. Those that waited to make hay until later in the summer found that the grasshoppers were beating them to it. I’ve heard plenty of complaints about the damage grasshoppers are doing this year. They are definitely adding a lot of extra protein to the grain tank!

Robert landed in Edmonton on Saturday, and is helping our neighbour Iman Koeman again. There, in Westlock, the harvest is just beginning. There’s been some early harvesting of peas and barley, and swathing of canola is starting in earnest. Iman started combining barley yesterday.

Westlock area had great weather and there are prospects of bumper crops. They had lots of rain, so the fungicide companies did well too. The high grain prices make this a great year to have bumper crop. It’s too bad we know that high prices always mean someone is suffering – this time mainly the USA with their extremely dry weather, and some of Europe.

In Westlock, the canola price is Cdn$13.35/bu ($588.50/tonne); feed wheat is $6.80/bushel ($250/tonne); feed barley is $4.42/bushel ($203/tonne).

Over drinks at the Schleitheim swimming pool on Sunday – it was over 30C! – Peter Gasser asked us if we’d heard about the cattle herd that died in northern Germany. “They’re saying it is glyphosate poisoning,” he said. Robert always said Roundup (a Monsanto glyphosate product widely used for weed control) is so harmless you could drink it. Professor Monika Krüger, from the University of Leipzig, believes her research proves otherwise. She thinks that glyphosate poisoning is the reason for the deaths of the cattle – not a large single intake of the product, but a long steady diet of cattle feed grown using glyphosate products. That’s not good news for farmers who have come to depend heavily on glyphosate products in their weed control strategies.

Last week a short video clip on German TV (http://www.mdr.de/fakt/video72040.html ) showed Herman Bormann, a farmer from Niedersachsen, Germany in his empty barn, after his herd of several hundred cows and calves all died of what doctors diagnosed as the result of the toxic bacterium Clostridium Botulinum. But why?

Professor Krüger has been doing research on the effects of glyphosate on cattle for some time now. She says her findings show that glyphosate has a negative effect on the good bacteria in the gut, upsetting the delicate and necessary balance of good and harmful bacteria. This makes the body more prone to disease. Bormann had the last of his cattle tested for glyphosate residues. All of them showed a high concentration of glyphosate in the urine. Professor Krüger then tested farmers for glyphosate residue, all of whom also had traces in their urine. She tested her staff, and also herself. Two thirds of the staff, including herself, tested positive for glyphosate. None of them were farmers. (The German Institute for Riskassessment – Bundesinstitute fuer Risikobewertung – states the amounts found in the urine were below those known to be harmful to humans.)

Monsanto, of course, says that Roundup is perfectly safe, referring to their paper on the safety of Roundup for humans and animals  http://www.monsanto.com/products/Documents/glyphosate-background-materials/gly_human_risk.pdf . Environmentalists take issue with this paper, such as the author of the following site which compares Monsanto’s finding with those of French scientists: http://www.infowars.com/surprise-monsanto-funded-research-finds-their-products-safe/

The video clip won’t have done much to make Europeans more open to the idea of importing Genetically Modified (GMO) crops, which has been a bone of contention between the USA and Canada and Europe for some time. Nor will do much for Europeans’ trust in North American food products.

I find this all particularly interesting at a time when our neighbours in western Canada are busy filling their sprayers for a preharvest application of glyphosates. It’s an ideal time to catch those tricky weeds such as thistle and quackgrass, and to speed up maturity of a late crop. (In Switzerland, preharvest applications are not allowed.)

The agriculture articles I read all stress that Professor Krüger’s findings have not yet been published, making them not credible. We do know that there are more problems with cross pollination and contamination of Roundup Ready canola varieties than we were first told about. Weed varieties resistant to Glyphosate products are also on the increase. Maybe there could be more problems with human and animal health than we first thought too. Maybe we should be getting just a little worried? Or at least more careful as to how we use the product?

Robert’s doing a job for the Vögeli brothers, Hans and Urs, in Gächlingen right now. Hans operates (for Switzerland) a big farm with about 500 head of feeder cattle, and Urs is a busy farm contractor. Last week Robert caught an employee washing windows in the shop. “Did you run out of work?” he teased. No, they were getting ready to celebrate big time.

Last weekend Urs and Barbara Vögeli put on a two day party to celebrate 25 years Vögeli Vvv agriculture contractors (http://www.voegelivvv.ch). Just two weeks ago they buried their 95 year old father Hans Vögeli, a week before that his wife and their mother Hedi. That was in the middle of the grain harvest. Urs said he didn’t have time to mail out party invitations as planned – he couldn’t very well add them to the death announcements it is customary to send friends and relatives. So he was both very pleased and surprised at the crowd over the weekend, which included a Sunday church service, a concert by the village band and lunch at the community hall. The machine shed-turned-pub, seating around 80 people, was full much of the time.

Urs, an agriculture mechanic, started the business in l987 with a feed chopper. Gradually over the years he acquired other machinery, and took over custom outfits that were selling out. Now the company employs seven people, including Cornelia Witzig, who works 60 per cent as a nurse and 40 per cent for Urs. She says she needs the balance the fieldwork gives her life.

The main jobs start in early spring when farmers begin putting out liquid manure and end late November/December with the transport of sugar beets to the factory, and back transport of the sugar beet byproduct for feed. Urs says his transport trucks are his ‘cash cows’, as they work all year. There is hardly a farm machine that Urs doesn’t own. He even has a rock picker.

A Deutz 4065HTS combine stands in the yard, with a 4.5 meter (15 foot) header. His brother’s Polish farm worker told him, “Switzerland is too small for that combine.” Urs has a 7.5 meter (26 foot) header on a combine working in Germany right now. Does he use that on the Swiss fields too? – Yes, he tells me. It would make short work of some of these one and two hectare fields! The main combining season usually only lasts a good week, Urs tells me; a crazy busy season, and a short time to put these combines to work.

Even successful businesses make mistakes sometimes. 2011 started out as a very dry year. In August all farmers were worried there would be a severe shortage of corn silage. Urs speculated – and bought a larger amount of corn straight from the field. It rained, the corn filled out, and it ended up being a decent harvest and a bad move for Urs. He still has quite a bit of that corn.

You win some, you lose some. Judging by what’s displayed in the yard and the party celebrations, Urs and Barbara Vögeli win more than they lose!

“This is the life!” – knees still shaking from the steep hike down from the peak, we relax with a cold apple cider before the alpine hut. Cow bells ring from the meadows. The sun warms our back. Geraniums bloom profusely on the weathered window sill.

The alp Senn comes out, it could be Heidi’s grandfather – thick grey beard, weathered face that tells you he won’t give you more words than he needs to. His dog beside him, he heads up the steep trail. It’s time to get the cows home for the milking – 27 of them. I would like to ask him about his alp, about his life – but I know that to get anything out of him I would have to hike back up that hill beside him, silent for some time, waiting for those first words. Up would be okay, but my flatlander knees won’t make it down again.

This is Alpwirtschaft Stuckli, above Sattel, Kanton Schwyz. It is one of Switzerland’s 7000 community alps (the word used for alpine community pastures), where the area’s milk cows spend their summer grazing on the herbs and grasses of the alpine meadows. Alpine milk and its products are highly prized in Swiss and tourist eyes. Three milking machines hang on a rafter in the shade. The milk is poured into the chrome tank on a trailer, which will be hauled to a larger alp where the milk is made into cheese.

For the Senn (alp farmer) and his/her team it is a hard life – up early, before five, bring the cows in from the often steep pastures, milk, make cheese, muck out the barn, herd the cows, cook, clean up, and do it all over again. It’s often a lonely life. Not all alp huts are as close to the tourist path as Alp Stucki. There are no holidays between the time the cows come up in the spring and leave again in the fall; rarely a weekend off. You have to get along with the rest of the team – maybe one, maybe two people. It looks idyllic on such a beautiful day, but reality can be different.

The alpine community pastures carry out an important function in the preservation of the Swiss Alps, one that the Swiss government and people are willing to pay a price for in the way of high subsidies. If not regularly grazed or cut, shrubs and forest soon take over the pastures. Not only would a way of life disappear, but the Swiss tourist industry would suffer.

The appearance of little cafes and restaurants with the alp huts is relatively new. Part of their function is to provide another outlet for the sale of the cheeses and butters the alp produces; extra income for cash strapped alps. It also gives an opportunity for an exchange of worlds and thoughts (if the Senn will talk… his help might be a better bet).

For the hiker, it’s a welcome stop on the way; a cold bottle of cider, beer or water with a plate of alp cheese and fresh bread… and if you’re lucky, a few words with the Senn.

I’m reading in all the bigger newspapers that the World Bank is very concerned about rising grain prices, especially in light of the world’s poor. Since mid June, 2012, wheat prices have risen 50 per cent, corn 45 per cent and soya 30 per cent, as a result mainly of a major drought in the USA. (http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/2012/07/30/food-price-volatility-growing-concern-world-bank-stands-ready-respond )

There’s a light side to this, the World Bank also says (and not only for Western Canadian grain farmers). “Higher prices can bring desperately needed income to poor farmers, enabling them to invest, increase their production and thereby become part of the global food security solution.” (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/grain-prices-threaten-growth-except-in-canadas-breadbasket/article4450686/)

Our small farmers in Zambia probably won’t realize higher prices anytime soon. They are already supposedly profiting from much higher than market prices. The government of Zambia set the floor price for maize on May 31/12 at 65,000 kwacha ($12.50) for 50 kg, unchanged from the previous crop year. Farmers were very happy to hear that.

Problem is, a large amount of small farmers don’t profit from the floor price. Instead, traders and millers do. The maize harvest starts in June and goes on throughout the month of July. From the beginning of harvest, small traders move throughout the rural areas, buying maize from small farmers for much below the floor price. Why would farmers sell to them? For the same reason farmers sell for a low price anywhere in the world – they need cash badly. A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush, many tell themselves.

And they could be right. Last year it was a long time before most of those who sold their maize to the government saw their money. In fact, David Muwaya of Mpongwe told me, some still haven’t been paid for last year’s maize. Farmers need money for school fees for children that may not have been in school for at least a semester already for lack of funds. They need money for medicine, to pay bills, for food. They just plain need money. That the money these traders are paying them doesn’t even cover the cost of the crop they’re selling, doesn’t weigh heavy at that moment. It’s money, at least.

Money that will run out far too soon, before it’s time to buy into the government subsidized fertilizer program, for instance.

Maybe World Bank Country Director for Zambia Kundhavi Kadiresan isn’t all wrong when she attacked the Zambian government’s policy of continuing support of the floor price. She said that the program encouraged traders to exploit farmers at low prices, that it encouraged mono cropping by setting artificially high prices for maize, and that the program doesn’t ensure long-term sustainable agriculture in Zambia. Her remarks were highly criticised in Zambia, where maize is the staple food. Food is always a political issue. Any criticism that gives a hint of reducing household income, of rocking food security will be highly attacked. (see what Zambians think – read comments to: http://www.lusakatimes.com/2012/05/31/world-bank-urges-zambia-stop-setting-maize-price/)

Is the small farmer really profiting from the government programs? Some are. But only those who can budget resources so they don’t fall prey to those traders trying to make a buck (or many bucks). And only those who can afford to hang on until the government gets around to paying. That leaves out far too many farmers, the way I see it. But the government probably isn’t going to change the program anytime soon. It would be a bad move politically. If you’re a small farmer in Zambia, tell me what you think.

We heard the aliens visited Löhningen the night of July 11/12 and created a new crop circle in Farmer Müller’s field. Robert and I biked there on Sunday to see for ourselves. We found the area fenced off from the rest of the field with yellow tape – it seemed okay to walk in and look. For Robert it is clear – this is the job of people with a narrow roller. I wasn’t so easily convinced – it seemed too precise, the interweaving of the grain too intricate.

I did some online checking – in an aerial view of the crop circle it looks like a flower, quite beautiful to see. The farmer didn’t think so and filed a report. The Schaffhausen police are looking for the suspects. Clearly everyone expects this to be the work of humans. Reading through the Wikipedia page on crop circles, I reluctantly began to agree.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_circle) Crop circles were rarely seen before the 1970’s, and then only as simple circles. A large influx of crop circles in southern England in the late 1970s, more intricate all the time, was later found to be the work of two men, Bower and Chorley. Crop circles have since become more frequent and increasingly more intricate. Much as I like the idea of mystery, there probably isn’t anything really mysterious about crop circles except how did these guys near Löhningen do this so near a dwelling and train tracks without anyone catching them?

It won’t be there long anymore – the wheat and canola harvest is in full swing. A week of dry warm weather has the combines busy in every corner. Robert sat on his old combine last night. He bought the John Deere 965H in 1982 (30 years ago!) together with two other farmers who are still running it. Markus Stamm and his daughter Sarah, an agriculture student, were combining wheat. With a 12 foot header and no cab, it’s not the most modern or largest combine around, but it does the job. The combine cuts about 20 hectares (50 acres) a year.

Last time Robert was here during wheat harvest, he was combining his own field – more than 20 years ago. It felt a little strange last night, to roast smokies at the top of the hill, and watch everyone all around busy at work. Well, Robert will get his hours in yet – he’ll be working for our neighbour in Canada again this coming harvest season.

Yields are good – Markus harvested 8 Tonnes of wheat per hectare, about 120 bushels an acre. He’s pretty happy. The weather in Switzerland has been almost ideal this year for most crops. Our Sunday bike trip took us past some of the nicest corn fields we’ve seen in years. Sugar beets and sunflowers look great too. Hopefully the aliens won’t come and destroy it!

Both the sign at the edge of Res Müller’s field, and the grain itself catch my eye. The stalks are taller, the heads long, fine and beardless, the stand thinner than wheat. Ur-Dinkel, the sign says, or spelt in English. This ancient grain, which according to the sign was Europe’s most valuable and important food grain for 3000 years, had almost disappeared. But it’s no longer uncommon to see a field of spelt. Spelt bread, buns, cookies and flour can be found in almost any bigger grocery store. It’s a household name again.

There are several reasons for this, but the main one is probably that spelt is more easily digested, and for many people with wheat allergies, is often well tolerated. (It still has gluten though, so those with gluten allergies will still be allergic to it.) It is higher in fat and protein content than most wheat. It is also high in fibre. According to the American Heart Association’s website, “Dietary fiber from whole grains, as part of an overall healthy diet, helps reduce blood cholesterol levels and may lower risk of heart disease.”
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/NutritionCenter/HealthyDietGoals/Whole-Grains-and-Fiber_UCM_303249_Article.jsp

Res Müller has been growing ancient grains for many years, including the even older varieties of Emmer and Einkorn. He started growing spelt when the market for the other two faltered. All these older grain varieties are hardier, requiring less spray applications, especially fungicides. He finds they are well suited to the drier climate and sandier soils of Osterfingen, where he farms. That spelt is a better alternative for people with allergies, impresses him too. Check out this site for more spelt benefits: http://www.spelt.com/

The main market for spelt in Switzerland is the Interessen Gemeinschaft Dinkel (IG Dinkel), which is under the tight regulations of IP Suisse (Integrated Production). Yields for spelt are approximately 4.5 tonnes per hectare, or 67 bushels per acre. Wheat in extensive production, as Res would grow it, yields approximately 6 tonnes per hectare, or 89 bushels per acre. The price for spelt is around 700 Swiss francs per tonne (Cdn$1.04 to Sfr.1.00), while extenso wheat brings about 500 Sfr. That makes the price per acre about equal for either grain. (If the prices seem high, it’s because Swiss farmers are heavily subsidized.)

Growing spelt has another advantage for Res. Straw is at a premium, and spelt produces lots of that. The farmers around him are happy to take any straw he can sell them.

I can’t wait to bake some bread out of this grain. The IG Dinkel website (http://www.urdinkel.ch/) tells me I can buy whole spelt flour at the local Migros store just down the road. I’m headed there this afternoon!

Ah, that feels good! I haven’t sat on a combine for almost two years. “It would feel good if we didn’t have so much stress,” Stephan Schudel, the combine operator, says to me. The barley harvest has begun in Schleitheim, and Stephan is a custom harvester.

The stress is caused by two things mainly – the number of farmers and small fields that are clamouring for his attention, and the weather. Few farmers have their own combine in Schleitheim. Most won’t have more than 10-20 hectares of grain to harvest, and that on fields rarely bigger than two or three hectares. For Stephan that means racing from one field to the next, cleaning headers between farmers and fields, and if he has to go on a main road, unhooking the header onto a trailer.

The weather isn’t helping things. It’s already rained twice the normal amount for July and we’re not even in the middle yet. The forecast is for more rain second half of the week. All the farmers are phoning him, they want him NOW! That is, they all want him to combine their barley when it’s perfectly dry. No one wants to be the first, he complains. And if he doesn’t get to all his customers, they’ll call someone else. If they find someone, he’ll lose business.

His New Holland CS6060 Laterale combine is chewing through a barley field the size of a Canadian’s hankie – .45 hectares, or about one acre. He spends more time turning than he does combining. It’s a good day’s work if Stephan does 17-18 hectares. On average he manages about 12. That doesn’t sound like much to this Canadian farmer. But 12 hectares means he probably did at least six, more likely ten fields. It’s the time it takes to switch fields, the time he spends turning, driving to the edge of the field to unload.

Custom combiners charge around $340 per hectare, a little more if it’s canola (they use a special canola header). Stephan thinks many custom combiners don’t harvest more than 100 hectares a year, although he does a little more than that.

We move on to a bigger field, a couple hectares large. Stephan turns the combine down into the hill. I’m apprehensive – hills scare me. But we stay level all the way – Stephan says the CS6060 has 36 Per Cent hillside compensation. It’s a good thing – Schleitheim’s farmers are cropping some pretty steep slopes. The barley looks good. Stephan estimates it at eight tonnes per hectare, or 145 bushels per acre. There’s a pile of straw coming out behind. The owner will be happy about that too. Last year there was a shortage because of drought. Animal rights laws demand that livestock be bedded down at least partially on straw.

I tell Stephan there’s no use in getting stressed in Canada. When you’ve got hundreds or more hectares of grain out there, that’s a long harvest. You may as well relax, because it won’t get you done any faster. “That’s actually true for us too,” Stephan admits ruefully.

It takes camping to a whole new level – Leonardo Cavazzi and Gianni Brovida from Italy are travelling through Europe in a brand new golden Massey Ferguson 7624 tractor, pitching a tent every night. Between June 10 and July 29 they plan to cover 13,000 kilometres through 17 European countries. It sounds like a farmer’s dream holiday to me. In fact, it’s a big fundraiser for an agricultural school in Chad, Africa.

It all started when Leonardo, an avid cycler throughout the world, tried to get his friend Gianni to go on a bike trip with him. Gianni, according to their homepage http://www.capenorthadventure.com/index_eng.html said, only if we go with a tractor. He must be a red neck farmer! Leonardo had a heart for the school in Chad, bringing in the humanitarian element. Gianni talked to his Massey Ferguson dealer, and the idea was born. The Massey Ferguson company decided to sponsor them, and tire manufacturer Trelleborg added their support.

The two Italians started in their home town of Val Bormido in Italy, moving up through Austria, Slovakia, Poland and the Baltics to Norway. Last Saturday, June 30, they celebrated their arrival in the land of the midnight sun at North Cape, Norway – the most northerly point on the European mainland. They plan to return home via Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium and France. There they will visit the AGCO Beavais factory in Picardy, northern France, where the tractor was manufactured. Too bad they don’t plan to stop in Switzerland! I would love to visit with these two (only if they speak English…).

The striking golden tractor draws a lot of attention on the road. (It’s gold instead of red because of all the awards this particular tractor has garnered – click on ‘the golden tractor’ on the link above.) This is good advertisement for Massey Ferguson, but also for the African agriculture school. Built two years ago by the LAI Diocese, the school is primarily for children of parents who have died of AIDS. Sister Rosanne Cavarero, the financial manager of the school, hails from Val Bormido and knows Leonardo personally. The school hopes to buy a small tractor. To date they are plowing the fields by hand or with oxen.

You can follow these two men on their mission on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capenorthadventure I have to warn you that most of the page is in Italian. But the pictures are nice. The first link is in English. If you read German, there’s a good story on the two in the agriculture online paper Schweizer Bauer: http://www.schweizerbauer.ch/index.html

I wish the little boys and girls we see in the facebook pictures, students at the school in Chad, could see the tractor that is driving around collecting funds for a tractor for them. I can just see them climbing all over it, laughing and chattering and pushing each other. But they might want the golden tractor instead of the small one they’re hoping to get…