If ever you’ve been frustrated by seemingly never getting to those big jobs you’d like to work on, or you feel like all you need to do is work faster and harder to get where you want to be, Chris Croft has six strategies he’d like you to try. Croft is a management trainer and… Read More
Year: 2022
Manitoba’s new agriculture minister says helping producers recover from the drought of 2021 and maintaining cross-border movement of feed and the province’s agricultural exports are top priorities as he settles into the minister’s office. Derek Johnson was sworn in as Manitoba’s minister of agriculture last week, as the province’s new premier, Heather Stefanson, appointed her… Read More
The research and experience in the field is unequivocal: The right pre-seed burnoff is critical to guarding yield potential. Lack of moisture was a big challenge in 2021. Among other things, a pre-seed burnoff takes out weeds before they can rob the crop of soil moisture and nutrients. Research also suggests that plants detect neighbouring… Read More
2021 won’t be forgotten anytime soon in the cattle world. The January 1, 2022, Cattle on Feed report from CanFax showed a 12 per cent increase in the number of cattle on feed from a year ago, with placements down a bit. As Anne Wasko of the Gateway Livestock Exchange explains in our latest Beef… Read More
On this Friday edition of RealAg Radio, we’ve got a Beef Market Update for you with Anne Wasko of the Gateway Livestock Exchange. We’ve also got an issues panel featuring host Shaun Haney, and RealAgriculture’s Lyndsey Smith and Kelvin Heppner. They’ll be discussing small town growth, financial disconnects (which you can find more info on… Read More
Harvest weed seed control isn’t necessarily new to the agriculture industry. Farmers in Australia have been using seed control units on the backs of their combines to reduce weed seed return to the soil for several years. There are different methods to control weeds with a seed control unit — everything from cost-effective things like… Read More
When it comes to increasing soybean yield, University of Illinois plant physiology professor Fred Below has two words of advice — plant early. In his presentation earlier this month at the Ontario Agricultural Conference, Below shared data from eight years of trials that show growers in Illinois lose almost half a bushel (0.47 bu/ac) for every day… Read More
There are those that say if you talk about something enough, it’s more likely to happen. If that’s the case, you can blame Kelvin Heppner for the rate of inflation and perhaps Shaun Haney for the fact that you can’t lock down enough glyphosate for the spring. While I’m mostly kidding, both supply chain disruption… Read More
Imports of feed into southern Alberta since November have been unprecedented, but delays in shipments, of both corn and distillers’ dried grains (DDGs), from the U.S. have resulted in cattle feeders still having to scramble to find feed. As we reported earlier this week, many feedlots are waiting nervously for trains to arrive, with feed… Read More
Early in 2021, #buttergate caused a media frenzy when a foodie from western Canada suggested that butter seemed firmer at room temperature than before. Some suggested a link between farmers feeding palm oil and too-firm butter, but there was no readily available science to prove or disprove the theory. A year later, a working group… Read More
There’s a rising number of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) cases in Manitoba’s hog population. The numbers are so high in fact, that Cam Dahl, general manager of the Manitoba Pork Council, has deemed the issue to be a “general outbreak.” “Normally, this is a disease that we see spread in late spring or summer, a… Read More
And we’ve reached another Thursday, which can only mean one thing… The Farmer Rapid Fire! On this edition of the Farmer Rapid Fire, you’ll hear from: Billy Beaudry of Saint-Valérien de Milton, Quebec; Emery Huszka of Florence, Ont.; Rob Stone of Davidson, Sask.; and Shane Strydhorst of Neerlandia, Alta. Plus, Shayne Dueck of MNP joins… Read More
Regina is on its way to becoming the canola crush hub of the country. The most recent canola crush announcement, made last week, includes a 1.1 million metric ton capacity plant, funded by AGT Foods and Federated Co-operatives Limited. While announcements have been fast and furious the last few years, Chuck Penner of LeftField Commodities… Read More
Corn imports into Western Canada from the U.S. have risen dramatically following the 2021 drought, but cattle feeders in Alberta say unpredictable shipments are not keeping up with demand. In some cases, feedlots say they are scraping together the last of their feed supplies, and are banking on delayed trains still arriving in time to… Read More
The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Marie-Claude Bibeau has announced the 18 semi-finalists selected under the Novel Technologies Streams to find new solutions to food waste. According to AAFC, every year over half of Canada’s food supply is wasted, and nearly $50 billion of that wasted food is avoidable. “Every single submission we… Read More