When you consider the temperatures across the prairies even a month ago, it’s hard to believe we’d be here now talking about the effects of high temperature on canola. That’s the nature of life on the prairies though. While prolonged periods of high heat may not be in the cards for most of the prairies,… Read More
Month: July 2011
A number of industry partners came together in Lacombe, Alberta in an effort to promote winter wheat production as a good choice for producers from both an economic and an environmental perspective. Bayer CropScience, Agrium and the Alberta Winter Wheat Producers Commission have partnered with Ducks Unlimited Canada in an effort to help in conservation… Read More
Wet conditions over the past few years have brought the importance of fungicide back on to the producers radar. Those conditions are the final piece of the puzzle diseases like sclerotinia need to get established and cause real damage to canola. The devastating results of fungal diseases are helping producers to realize the importance of… Read More
Stripe rust is one of those diseases that has been around for a while, but hasn’t really been that much of a threat. A few new developments with regards to the disease may have changed that. Firstly, resistance to stripe rust in one variety of winter wheat was found to be ineffective. Second, the disease… Read More
If you talk about controlled traffic farming in Alberta, you’ll only come up with a handful of names of farmers involved in the practice. Steve Laroque is one of those farmers. We talked to Steve a while back about his involvement in controlled traffic farming and why he thought it had the potential to fit… Read More
When you’re looking at controlling costs on the farm, the issue of overlapping with seed and fertilizer can be a big one. Especially in crops like canola, over seeding and over application of fertilizer can have a very negative impact on growth and development and end up being very costly for the farmer. Controlling that… Read More
Between the internet, the radio the t.v., the newspaper your phone or your neighbour, there are a host of options when it comes to getting your local weather forecast. When you’re farming however, you need a degree of accuracy on a local level that most times can only be provided by a drive to the… Read More
While giving a presentation this week at the Canadian Seed Growers meeting in Hamilton I talked about the critical role that mobile plays in the deployment of social media on the farm. A very bright young seed grower friend of mine asked some very interesting questions during the panel discussion. Eric’s thoughts were, “Every time… Read More
Climate change is one of those things that has forced scientists to speculate, to project and to anticipate scenarios in an attempt to help humanity deal with potential problems on the horizon. Some of those potential problems were discussed at the Climate Change Symposium in Guelph, Ontario. One area discussed was that of climate change’s… Read More
The bottom line is that farmers want to see their yields increase, and that’s what we’re providing.” Becker Underwood’s Director of Marketing Ralph DeVries. With the release of the new Nodulator XL inoculant for peas and lentils, DeVries says that they’ve improved upon a number of things, most importantly, a more active strain of rhizobium… Read More
RealAgriculture.com was started out of a passion for and a love of agriculture. Since we started, one of our goals here has been to promote an understanding and an appreciation of agriculture and the people involved in it. Farming is one of the most vitally important and under appreciated jobs around, so anytime a farmer… Read More
Proper storage options for your crops are critically important both before you plant and after you harvest. In most cases, maintaining quality while in storage after harvest means maintaining your crops value. Keeping your seed free from moisture and bugs prior to planting can help preserve and maintain things like germ and vigor. In the… Read More
While traveling between Guelph and Hamilton this week I saw Some good fields and some less than ideal ones but overall things looked good for corn and soybean growers in Ontario. I attended the Canadian Seed Growers meeting and had a chance to talk to several growers from across the province. It seems that the… Read More
In this episode of talking to farmers we go back to the grounds at the Western Farm Progress Show in Regina,Saskatchewan where we asked farmers who they thought made the best four wheel drive tractor on the market. In a year like this, where the four wheel drive component of almost every tractor across the… Read More
Is there a yield ceiling on wheat? In this episode of the Wheat School we put that question to Phil Needham of Needham Ag Technologies. The answer to that question is not as simple as a blanket yes or no. With every field and every farmer being different, that question is best answered by the… Read More