If you haven’t noticed seed companies are just as interested in the things being applied to the seed as the seed itself. This is due to the continued push towards looking at the full production cycle instead individual unconnected mutually exclusive events in the production cycle. At Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show I discussed this trend… Read More
Month: September 2010
There are some booths at a farm show that are very run of the mill and don’t allow for much imagination and then there are those that just grab you. No one at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show missed the Harley Davidson tractor trailer Lonestar edition from International Trucks. Every time I walked by the booth… Read More
By Shaun Haney This week the Grain Farmers of Ontario, Ag Canada, farmers and industry have made a major commitment to plant breeding in Eastern Canada. There was a lot of excitement in the Grain Farmers of Ontario booth at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show this week. It didn’t take long to quickly figure out what… Read More
By Shaun Haney Its official the harvest of 2010 that we feared appears to be here. Even though David Phillips may of thought we would be free of frost, it is cold and wet. Is a hard frost next? The low hanging fruit of harvesting the early seeded crops is gone and now farmers across the… Read More
Earlier in the week Anne Dunford brought up a great question during the Beef Market Update. Will ranchers be holding back more heifers to restock the cow herd or cash in on some higher values and run? With the trend definitely pointing to a continued herd reduction, what will stop it? Is it inevitable that… Read More
This is appearing to be a difficult year to try and execute on a marketing plan that you can have conviction in. Between the late crop, uncertain yields, carry out numbers being questionable and fluctuating basis levels, farmers are really having their marketing plans tested. Even the most experienced analysts are questioning what is the… Read More
Its time to seed winter wheat and there are several different considerations that you need to make in order to make sure you have success this season. In many ways the steps that you take today are crucial to what your yield results are next August. Too many people make some crucial mistakes at fall… Read More
There and many different reasons for a company to want to make the “big deal.” Some are looking for efficiency, some strive for an increase in scope, and others just see the value at certain levels. Lately the agri-business sector is under intense media coverage with the running and gunning in the marketplace by company’s… Read More
Every equation has a set of variables that impact the outcome. All variables have different levels of sensitivities and betas. The current fall run is shaping up to be a very interesting one. All the variables seem to be up in the air and creating a real sense of uncertainty. The interesting fact is that… Read More
This week I was one of the fortunate people to be able to attend the AgChat Foundation Agvocacy 2.0 Training Conference in Chicago. This was a collection of the top agriculture social media people in North America. The results were amazing. This was a conference that was about more than just “how to use twitter… Read More
One of the special things in agriculture is the knowledge that is passed down from one generation to another. In most cases this is a possible experience but sometimes poor information slips through the cracks. A great example of this is the calculation of wheat seeding rates. Whether you are in Eastern or Western Canada… Read More
By Megan Oleksyn Peas, barley and corn, oh my! Here in Western Canada, there are many different forage crops that can be cost-effectively turned into silage for cattle. High River area rancher, Phil Rowland, comments that silage is €œthe easiest way to put up a consistent quality forage crop in Alberta€™s variable climate conditions.€ And… Read More
Canola research continues to receive a lot of attention from the breeding programs around the world. In Canada canola is a very important crop for seed companies, processors and most of all farmers. Due to the fact canola is an accepted biotech crop in Canada researchers are working very diligently to increase the traits available… Read More
I have had many different farmers comment on the potential impact of the Iceland volcano eruption on the weather patterns this year. Was there more of an impact than just cancelled flights in and out of Europe or has the extreme variable weather in 2010 been just a coincidence? Farmers love weather and drawing correlations… Read More
There is never a shortage of issues in the cattle business. Since 2003 we have dealt a rising currency, export bans and struggles with boxed beef demand. On the bright side the supply equation looks to be bullish and demand for middle meat appears to be recovering. On the political side there has been some… Read More