May 17, 2012

Tiffin 2012 – Are We Moving Backwards In Feed Efficiency In Cattle?

john basarab

The cattle feeder is in the business of managing cattle feed intake and feed efficiency. It’s a make or break venture that operates on getting cattle to convert feed to mass as quickly and efficiently as possible. It’s a process that in recent years has had some tight margins associated with it, making feed efficiency [...]

Dow AgroSciences Gives Away a Tandem Truck at Ag Expo

Tandem Giveaway

Giveaways are a pretty common thing at most farm shows. There’s always a chance that you can score yourself a hat, a jacket or even an iPad. Those things are great, but a 130,000 dollar tandem truck is on another level altogether. This year at AgExpo in Lethbridge Alberta, one extremely lucky farmer drove away [...]

Sarah Foster: The Building Blocks Of Complete Seed Quality

Seed Germination

A good crop starts with good quality seed. As far as choosing that seed goes, most producers make that choice based on two factors, germ and vigour. Those two things are critical, but they don’t tell the whole story. The truth is that there are other unseen things that, if unaddressed can have a major [...]

Twitter Was Made for Farmers – Rick Taillieu

Rick Taillieu

Farmers are starting to grasp the potential of social media. A growing interest has been shown by both the older and younger generation of farmer on how to use tools like twitter to their advantage and not just for their entertainment. Twitter in particular has gained ground in the agriculture industry for promotional use, social [...]

CanFax: Short Cow Numbers Lead to Thin Packer & Feeder Margins in 2012

Brian Perillat

Cattle producers and industry members from the U.S., Canada and beyond gathered at NCBA 2012 to talk about the state of the industry, the triumphs and the challenges. As we look further ahead into 2012, the challenges for the margin operator don’t seem to get any easier. In fact, you could say that it looks [...]

Corn School – Nitrogen Application is Critical in Unlocking Corn Yields

Darel Walker

In this episode of the Corn School we continue our series with agronomist Darel Walker about the key factors in the pursuit of 300 bushel corn. In the first episode of the series we looked at soil tilth as one of those factors; in this episode we look to proper nitrogen application as another piece [...]

Richard Phillips: Making Your Voice Heard By Government is Critical For Farmers

Richard Phillips

There are many farmers and many Canadians, that if you asked “Do you feel that government hears your voice as a farmer?”, would launch into a frustrated and angry tirade about any number of issues under their skin. In some cases that’s a legitimate expression of a system that failed them, but in a greater [...]

John Masswohl Discusses Future of COOL

john masswohl

The World Trade Organization’s ruling on the country of origin labelling (COOL) legislation brought some small sense of victory to the Canadian beef industry. The excitement over that victory was short-lived however as producers realized that any tangible results stemming from that ruling would be a long way off. The potential for an appeal by [...]

The Global Economy’s Impact on Canadian Agriculture – Glen Hodgson

glen hodgson

The continuing saga of the financial crisis in Europe and in particular Greece is leaving a lot of analysts on the edge of their seats. The latest development being the 170 billion dollar Greek bailout deal presented Tuesday. The failure of that deal could have far-reaching implications. But just how much could Europe’s problems spill [...]

FarmTech 2012 – What it is Like to Farm in Ukraine – John Shmorhun, Harmelia Holdings

John Shmorhun

When we talk about feeding a growing world population, part of the solution involves maximizing the potential of all of the worlds existing agricultural land base.  Certain countries in the world are looked upon to be the future of agricultural production.  This list of “up and coming” nations includes Ukraine.  Vast tracks of land with [...]