Its the beginning of February which means it is time for the annual National Cattleman’s Beef Association (NCBA) meeting. With the cash market higher and feed prices lower than a year ago, cattle producers are seeing some strong margins and reasons for putting increased cattle on feed. Shaun Haney and Anne Wasko discuss the meeting… Read More
Month: February 2014
Without question one of the key components of a successful farm conference is the caliber of the networking opportunities available. FarmTech’s great speaker lineup and face-time-heavy agenda lends itself very well to meeting new and interesting people. At this year’s event, RealAgriculture’s founder Shaun Haney sat down with a few attendees to discuss what brought… Read More
If you’re somewhat tired of hearing the term “optimal fertility,” raise your hand. Maybe that’s not fair, because optimal fertility is really necessary for modern corn genetics to reach their full yield potential. But what does it really mean? As Dr. Fred Below, of the University of Illinois, explains in this Corn School episode, optimal… Read More
To many farmers, seed treatment is not an input worth questioning (check out Shane Thomas’ Three Reasons You Must Treat Your Seed), and as farms grow, it’s likely that the size and capacity of seed treaters will increase as well. Related: Serfas Farms Steps Up Seed Treating with the USC LP2000 In this video, Kaitlyn Dirkson of… Read More
Let’s say the planning stages go like this: crop rotation, variety selection, seed testing, determine seeding rate and so on. If you’re a farmer who doesn’t typically test seed or who may be thinking of skipping this step in an effort to save on costs, this episode of the Pulse School is for you. In… Read More
Think of an event covered by 5,000 journalists from 70 countries. The Winter Olympics? Superbowl XLVIII? A Justin Bieber court appearance? Think again – it’s actually an agriculture and food event, the biggest one in Europe, called Green Week. Now in its 79th year, this edition, staged every January, drew a record 410,000 people (mostly… Read More
U.S. President Barack Obama signed the Bipartisan Agriculture Act of 2013 — The Farm Bill — today at Michigan State University. In the States, the signing of this bill has been largely controversial, though it’s touted as a win for many sectors. “It supports local food by investing in things like farmers markets and organic agriculture,”… Read More
Quick negotiations and a tentative agreement earlier this week between CN Rail and the union representing some of its employees was good news earlier for Canada’s supply chain, as it meant avoiding a threatened strike. Upon hearing of the potential for 3,000 workers to strike, Saskatchewan’s Premier Brad Wall wrote Minister of Transport Lisa Raitt,… Read More
Sunflowers aren’t just one of the prettiest crops to grow, they’re also an increasingly attractive cropping option for 2014 for some areas. While still a small acreage area crop in Manitoba, both oil and confection sunflowers can be a profitable option and one with several benefits that go beyond a basic crop budget. That’s the… Read More
First, an apology. Eagle-eyed RealAgriculture readers will note that this column was absent last week. After three days at FarmTech ’14 there was more than enough to share, but no time to do it, so I’ll work some of last week into this, if you don’t mind. It’s no secret I like trains. Furthermore, I… Read More
Farmers in Manitoba know the symptoms of fusarium head blight all too well — bleaching of the grain head, sometimes with a pink tinge, that results in shriveled and shrunk kernels. Sometimes called scab or tombstone, fusarium head blight not only bites into yield, it’s also a downgrading factor of grain. Grain with fusarium damaged… Read More
The U.S. Senate passed the 956 page, $956.4 billion Farm Bill on Tuesday, following last week’s House approval, and is now awaiting President Barack Obama’s signature. The bill has been hugely controversial for many reasons, including Country of Origin Labeling (COOL), which remained in the 2014 Farm Bill despite reaction from eight major lobby groups… Read More
A high-clearance sprayer simply can’t compete with the efficiency of aerial application of some crop protection products. But just because a plane can cover farm more acres than ground units doesn’t mean there isn’t a drive to do the job better and more efficiently. On this stop of the Dow AgroSciences’ TechTour, Paul O’Carroll, of… Read More
If farmers want continued access to neonicotinoid seed treatments, they’re going to have to do two things: one, practice a series of beneficial management practices to minimize dusting off at planting; and, two, participate in strip trials of insecticide-treated and non-insecticide-treated corn and soybean seed in 2014. Ontario Ministry of Agriculture cereal specialist, Peter Johnson,… Read More
Anyone that has ever fed cattle has targeted a hole in the market to get a better price at some point. Sometimes the hole develops as predicted and sometimes the market adjusts and the hole is no more than a dent. In the first four weeks of January, cattle packers in the US found themselves… Read More