Serfas Farms Seeding Video

I just love the idea of farmers filming videos during the growing season.  It is a great way to showcase the pride that farmers take in their operation.  This is a great video from a great friend and one my top customers, Serfas Farms.  They are based in Turin, Alberta and grow grow wheat, barley, canola and silage corn.  Serfas Farms also has a feedyard.  The farm is managed by Herb Serfas and his two  sons Kevin and Mark.  You can follow Kevin Serfas on Twitter at @serfman76

Great video guys keep them coming.  

Crops in Minnesota, North Dakota and Manitoba are Affected by Rain

Harry Siemens of SiemensSays.com provides this pictoral commentary of the wet situation in Manitoba, Minnesota and North Dakota. On the weekend certain areas had 3 more inches of rain which is causing great difficulties for the land that did get planted. Harry points out that the land with the best drainage is showing the best and the rest well.....its flooded.

New Seeding Implements for 2010 Were Showcased at the Farm Progress Show in Regina

By: Garth Donald of Dynagra

The new seeding equipment was hot off the press at the Western Farm Progress Show two weeks ago in Regina. The biggest thing to come out for this next season is from Seed Hawk with their sectional control. Seed Hawk along with Raven industries have come up with a sectional controller system which will shut off both seed and fertilizer in overlapping situations very similar to most spraying systems. With savings of over 20% seen on the sectional sprayer controls, growers feel that they will see that type of savings on the drills. Raven have been making controllers for many years which will give reliability to this product which will also give them the ability to do variable rate in the next couple of years.

New Holland has just released their new version of a parallel link seeding system on their Slim platform for 2010. It is a new opener combination of seed on one side and a side band of fertilizer on the other side. The biggest advantage of this system is the transport width which is one of the narrowest in the industry with the potential of going to some of the largest seeding widths in the industry.

Bourgault and Morris were also showcasing there parallel linked seeding systems and there variable rate air carts. Both companies are using the Topcon X20 system for controlling their seeding system and variable rate systems which is very proven.

So what is the best system? Well, the one that fits your farm and soil type is the best system. There are pros and cons to every system but just make sure that it will perform the way you want it to.

Those are my thoughts,

Garth Donald C.C.A., Dynagra, Visit Dynagra.com to inquire about DynagraVRT so that you can tap the full potential of your fields.

USDA Planting Report Jolts the Market

This morning the USDA provided an updated planting report and the market was taken for a ride lower due to above expected corn and wheat acres. The following is commentary from Jon Driedger of FarmLink Marketing Solutions and Stephan Gmehlin of Farms.com

Below is Jon Driedger of FarmLink Marketing Solutions commentary.
The corn acres was the big surprise, and today’s trade clearly reflected that. Wheat was a bit negative as well, but managed to hold up relatively better than the corn. The soybean numbers came in roughly as expected, confirming an S&D that has little room for yield adversity going forward, which allowed it to hold up quite impressively today given the negative sentiment coming from corn.

As with all major government reports, the market’s reaction to the news over the coming days will be more important than the numbers themselves. Sentiment may have shifted, but the main crops still have a lot of weather ahead to trade, and in the case of corn and wheat, current values have already priced in a fair amount of bearish news in recent weeks. Most of the minor crops are indicating smaller year-over-year plantings in the U.S., including some important ones to western Canadian growers such as canola, barley, flax, mustard and dry beans. So while the overall initial impression of this report was bearish, it will take some time for the markets to fully digest the details, and for prices to respond in local terms.

Stephan Gmehlin commented on Farms.com this morning that, USDA surprised many people with this years Acreage report. Corn acres were actually up 2 million acres from the spring planting intentions report with an estimated 87 million acres this is the second largest corn crop planted since 1946, behind 2007. Iowa planted 13.7 million acres and Illinois added 200,000 acres from 2008 for a total of 12.3 million acres with Nebraska rounding out the top 3 states at 9.4 million acres. This corn acreage figure is a total surprise as most analysts were looking for acres to go down from March planting intention report, but this figure from USDA exceeded even the highest estimates of analysts by a million bushels.

Cosmetic Pesticides Banned in Ontario

This spring, I met with Lillian Schaer of FoodandFarmingCanada.com , to discuss some of the issues related to the urban pesticides ban in Ontario. I was first exposed to this issue during an interview that I did with Jay Bradshaw, President of Syngenta Canada. The following is an update on the situation.

The following was Submitted by AGCare, Agricultural Groups Concerned about Resources and the Environment, www.agcare.org.

Ontario’s new cosmetic pesticide ban came into effect on April 22 of this year.
Under the new law, pesticides cannot be used for cosmetic reasons on lawns, vegetable and ornamental gardens, patios, driveways, cemeteries, and in parks and school yards.

The provincial government has allowed no exceptions for pest infestations (insects, fungi or weeds) in these areas, stating that lower risk pesticides, biopesticides and alternatives to pesticides exist that can be used.

The ban does provide exceptions for various uses, including agriculture. The use of pesticides is necessary for agriculture from an economic and operational perspective, according to the government. Ontario farmers already have stringent rules on the use, handling, storage and application of pesticides, through the Grower Pesticide Safety Course, which requires all growers to take a course every five years before being able to buy crop protection products. Interestingly enough, however, these trained farmers may not apply those same products to their own vegetable gardens and lawns.

Farmers are concerned that the Ontario government will move to limit crop protection products in agriculture as well, a move that will dramatically impact their ability to produce food.
More than 250 pesticide products are banned for sale and over 95 pesticide ingredients are banned for cosmetic uses under the new law. The provincial ban overrides any municipal pesticide bylaws already in place.

For more information on pesticide use in agriculture and Ontario’s Pesticide Education Program for farmers, please contact AGCare at 519-837-1326 or jfraser@agcare.org .

CANOLA SCHOOL: Early Irrigation Management

Early irrigation management is very important to achieving yield targets. Matt Stanford of the Canola Council of Canada, provides great insight into how to properly manage your irrigation early on. Matt demonstrates the proper way to check for moisture and how to manage your wheel moves or pivots.

Plan to Attend the International Livestock Congress (ILC) at the Calgary Stampede

The Calgary Stampede is about celebrating our western roots and bringing out the inner cowboy in all of us. The Beef business continues to play a huge role in that history and will play a role in the future. On July 10th I will be attending the International Livestock Congress (ILC), Beef 2009: Firing Up Science and Innovation during the Stampede and based on what I am hearing from people you should too. There are many indutry related meeting through the season but ILC seems to draw the "people" in the business. Known as a great networking event, I am looking forward to trying to get a great handle on where the attendees and speakers think the Canadian beef business needs to move in the future.

ILC 2009 Speaker Lineup

I will be covering the event with video interviews and Twitter but I do encourage you to attend in person and view my coverage later as a reminder and archive. This will be similiar to my coverage of the Crop Production Show and Tiffin Conference earlier this year. I get invited to many industry events and the ILC 2009 is on my calendar for this year so I hope to see you there. If you want to meet up at the conference please send me an email.