Dustin is the youngest of Wayne's and Sheila's three children, the only son, and a 2000 ag graduate of the University of Manitoba. He has a strong interest in financial management and technology to go with his ag education and farm background.

"Can't Just Farm Anymore"

"College helped," he says. "It gave me a lot of basic knowledge, a lot of networks, lots of contacts. I learned that you can't just farm anymore. You need a business-like approach." His conclusion, looking at the changing times and markets, was that large-acre, commercial grain farms are high risk, low margin operations. He wasn't comfortable with the level of risk.

So Dustin decided to reduce his risk level. "A diversified farm portfolio, such as hay, cattle, and specialty crops, will put us into more markets and at least give us a little more security," he said. "It hasn't been without its headaches, but itís been a pretty good move."

Shortly after he graduated, Dustin and his wife Laura took the first steps toward bringing cattle back to the farm. Their plan was to build up top quality stock over a few years by starting with bred heifers and holding back 75 per cent of the heifer calves.

They financed the purchase of 20 Red Angus–Simmental bred heifers in December 2002. With no facilities for cattle on their own farm, they kept them temporarily at Lauraís family farm, about 25 miles away. The new herd produced 17 healthy calves in early 2003.

Mad Cow Economics

No sooner did they have a start in the cattle business then the United States closed its border to any import of Canadian beef, due to a single case of Mad Cow Disease. "My intentions were to winter them at (my) home this year, but I stopped spending money when the May 20th event happened," Dustin says. "I had the grain sector to fall back into, and didn't need to push my way into cattle if it was going to be a dead-end market."

For this summer he plans to increase pasture to about 200 acres with a blend of meadow brome grass, crested wheat grass, Russian wild rye grass, and alfalfa. It will be cross-fenced for intensive grazing on a three-day rotation.

Plans Big Forage Crop

He hopes, eventually, to have a quarter of the farm seeded to forage. He prefers annual forages such as hybrid millet and sorghum, although he'll continue growing some alfalfa. Annual forages will work well with his crop rotations and provide more flexibility for marketing.

Alfalfa can be a problem in his region. It is difficult to harvest top quality, first cut alfalfa in western Manitoba due to early summer rains. "If I keep my alfalfa acres low enough, maybe I can get it in premium condition. Then, I can make some money selling premium quality alfalfa, and I can feed my own beef cattle corn or sorghum silage or some alternate form of cheap feed."

Dustin and his father grew three forage crops in 2003. They committed 275 acres to alfalfa, 160 acres to forage oats and 110 acres to sorghum-sudangrass. They planned to sell what the herd didn't eat. But the growing season turned out to be one of the driest in recent memory. "Our total rain this year was four inches," Wayne said. "We used to get close to 12 inches, but fall has been really short of moisture for the last three years."

Grasshopper Invasion

Adding injury to thirst, the very dry conditions and heat seemed to pump up the grasshopper population. "We had a grasshopper plague like you wouldn't believe!" Wayne says.

While the Williams were away one July weekend, hungry grasshoppers converged on 175 acres of the emerging alfalfa. Upon their return home, the family stared at bare brown soil where a few days before they had a promising hay crop.

The forage oat crop was supposed to go to an Asian market, but, "We never did have rain on it, so we baled what we had," Wayne said. "It was a quarter of the production it should have been."

Their sorghum had a good aggressive start in mid-June, then ran out of moisture. It survived, but it didn't do well. Instead of two cuts and four tons an acre, Dustin only got one October cut that averaged 2.0 tons to an acre.

Under the circumstances, Dustin says, he was "slightly surprised and impressed" by the sorghum he did harvest. "In some areas, it was over 8 feet tall. In other areas, it was no more than 2 feet tall."

In the global economy, Dustin says, he realizes his prairie grain farm can't compete against the increased production in places such as Ukraine and Argentina. The price he needs just wonít be offered most of the time.

Changing Markets

"There's no reason to stick with markets for generic, commercial grain. They're going to be able to produce it way cheaper than I ever can, so why try?" he said. "Eventually, anything we try to grow now is going to be identity-preserved or a special contract."

Yields of contract crops tend to be lower, he admits, but contracting companies generally pay enough premium to offset lower yields and the extra work involved in meeting the identity-preserved production standards.

"You've got to stay really flexible, and that's what I'm planning to do," Dustin says. "Markets that looked good three years ago are washed out now. We're re-evaluating our farm every year, looking at where we can save dollars and where we need to spend dollars."

Through the changes, past, present and future, Dustin says his father has been supportive. "The way Dad wanted to do it was grain. My grandfather accepted that shift and let him choose his fate on the farm. The same honor and respect is being given to me," he says.

His father adds, "It's been interesting times, the last few years. The kids have different ideas, which is good, and the only way they're going to survive is to think outside the box."