Yesterday, Rick Cassson, MP Lethbridge hosted Federal Agricultural Minister, Gerry Ritz in Lethbridge.  On top of serving at the Farm Credit Canada Breakfast at Ag Expo and meeting with a farmer round table, Ritz also announced 15.5 million in funding for the Canadian Triticale Biorefiniery Initiative. I participated in the farmer round table where all twenty of the… Read More

Last week there was a very unique joint venture formed that will provide additional genetics to the Western Canadian market place.  Alliance Seed Corporation is a new seed company formed by Parrish & Heimbecker, Patterson Grain and several inland terminals in Saskatchewan.  As Dale mentions in the video, the new company will be focusing in… Read More

I have no problem debating with the NFU over whether or not the Competition Bureau should approve the sale of Lakeside to XL. I definitely have my opinions on it and so does the NFU but boy have they wore out their welcome by spending collaborative time with R-Calf. From the moment that the story… Read More

Fertilizer prices have been on the minds of farmers all winter and that trend still continues into the spring. Almost every single day on RealAgriculture.com the fertilizer label or a fertilizer story is the most viewed page. I checked out Google Trends and the data on the search for the word fertilizer. You can type… Read More

After visiting different fields across Chile, I really came to appreciate the differences in irrigation methods.  On the larger fields, pivots are becoming more common but there is still many stationary guns and even flood irrigation.  Most irrigation water is transported by dirt ditch while cement ditch infrastructure is underway.  Chilean farmers are able to grow very… Read More

Today, President Obama visits Canada and sits down with Prime Minister Harper. Currently, the Democrats are using the poor economy as an excuse to push their protectionist agenda forward. Canada and Mexico need to be very aware of what is transpiring and how it will affect agriculture in the future. Please do not think that… Read More

While looking at fields on a country back road we spotted a silage pit.  Immediately I was interested because of the look of the pit.  It was made very low to the ground due to small equipment owned by the farmer.  The other key characteristic was that the pit was covered in dirt and plastic and not tires.  The dirt… Read More

Very early into my trip I quickly noticed the forests lining the Route Cinco (main highway) were tree farms.  Hectares and hectares of tree farms populate the landscape of Chile.  Forestry is a major industry in Chile and tree farms are a big part of it.  We don’t necessarily think of tree farming as agricultural… Read More

Like many industries based on plant science and biology, there is a lot of risk. This is definitely the case with the collapse of the Chilean salmon and winter canola industry. Due to lack of proper environmental practices and controls the salmon farms have been infected with a virus which is killing the salmon population…. Read More

I will be in Chile until February 14th. I am going to try and post to the blog as much as I can while I am here but I will probably be able to add the majority of the content after I get back. So far on my trip I have toured several canola fields… Read More

The final speaker of the day at the Tiffin Conference in Lethbridge was Melanie Mainquist of Cargill Meat Solutions in Guelph. Melanie spoke about the real beef consumer, a fictitious character named Zoe. Zoe is not unusual or weird, she is real for the majority of female consumers. She eats beef once to twice a… Read More

At the Tiffin Conference in Lethbridge yesterday, Rick Paskal, Chairman of Canada Gold Beef discussed the need and benefits of a truly Canadian branded beef product. Rick passionately told the crowd how Canada Gold is trying to change the way money is distributed through the value chain. The key point being to make sure that… Read More

Larry Hicks of Cattlehedging.com was one of the keynote speakers at the Tiffin Conference yesterday in Lethbridge. Larry spoke about the necessity of risk management in the beef business. Larry very clearly outlined what hedging is and that there is much more involved than calling your broker to buy or sell futures contracts. He emphasized… Read More

 

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