Futures prices for corn, soybeans, and wheat all dropped on Friday on the heels of bearish soybean supply numbers in the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Sept. 29 Quarterly Stocks Report. Traders were paying close attention to old crop corn and soybean estimates, as a review of the balance sheet was completed. As expected,… Read More
Author: Kara Oosterhuis
Kara Oosterhuis is a Field Editor for RealAgriculture, covering all things agronomy in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. She grew up on a mixed irrigation and dryland farm northeast of Bow Island, Alta. Kara has always had a love for agriculture and a desire for telling stories - so she figured she may as well choose a career that lets her do both. You can find her on twitter at
Hannah Stamp of Vauxhall, Alta., and Sarah MacDonald of Vanderhoof, B.C., have been selected as the Outstanding Young Farmers Memorial Scholarship winners for 2023. Each winner receives a $1,000 scholarship to support their post-secondary agricultural education. The award includes two annual scholarships — one to an individual who has completed at least one year of… Read More
Pulse crops, for the most part, prefer drier conditions; however, the level of drought in some areas of the Prairies over the past few years has been too much for even them. Following multiple years of drought, it becomes more important for farmers to conduct soil tests ahead of planting pulse crops, such as lentils… Read More
There are few things as talked about between farmers as the weather. For a huge part of the Prairies, most conversations revolve around moisture, and as we very quickly approach the fall season many farmers are thinking ahead to snowfall expectations. There are many weather and moisture prediction methods out there, but even meteorologists will… Read More
The largest irrigation district in Canada is counting on above average snowpack this winter to replenish water supplies for the 2024 growing season. The St. Mary River Irrigation District (SMRID), which supplies water to over 500 thousand acres of farmland in southern Alberta, is no stranger to drought, and 2023 has been the sixth driest… Read More
We know that agriculture plays an important role in both greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration; however Dr. Joy Agnew of Olds College of Agriculture and Technology says we are missing half the picture when it comes to measuring agriculture’s overall carbon footprint. “There’s the emissions side, which everyone seems to be talking about and… Read More
Väderstad has announced the discontinuation of the Concord brand beginning with the 2024 model year. Instead, a selection of its products and design elements will be incorporated into the Väderstad air seeder lineup in the near future. In May 2021, Väderstad acquired AGCO-Amity JV, which included the Concord, Wil-Rich and Wishek brands. Since the acquisition,… Read More
Ecorobotix, a Swiss ag tech and AI software company, is showing off its brand-new smart sprayer at Farm Progress Show this week, at Decatur, Illinois. The Application Release Automation, or ARA, uses what the company is calling advanced UHP-Sprayer and Plant-by-Plant AI-based software solution. ARA was launched in 2021 by Ecorobotix in Switzerland, and has… Read More
Rob Graf, who is well-known in Western Canada for decades of experience breeding wheat in both the private and public sector, has joined the management team for Alberta-based seed company SeedNet. Graf, who retired from a nearly 24 year career with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in 2022, was a principal research scientist in winter wheat… Read More
Statistics Canada (StatsCan) has published data providing a socioeconomic snapshot of Canada’s evolving farm population. As of 2021, the farm population represents just 1.6 per cent of the total population in Canada. But how are they categorized? Data from the census shows that the face of Canada’s farm population is changing — farm households are… Read More
Picture this: You’re headed out to the sprayer and the wind starts to blow. The knee-jerk reaction is to cancel all spraying operations for that particular time, right? Not necessarily. There is definitely such thing as too much wind to spray; however, some wind turbulence is not all bad. So says Tom Wolf, founder of… Read More
Small plot research has its place, however, there is a need for field-scale research, too. When you take research to field scale, it allows for genetic and environmental interactions that may not show up in small-plot results, says Jagroop Kahlon, of Alberta Pulse Growers (APG). Kahlon presented about the APG Plot to Field program at… Read More
When it comes to nitrous oxide emissions, there are many complex formulas that can be used to determine what is going on in the fields. Abby Sim, field technician at Olds College of Agriculture and Technology, says this is precisely why the Smart Farm at the college decided to look at estimating nitrous oxide emissions…. Read More
Whether you are a farmer, rancher, agronomist, researcher, or industry professional — you’ve likely encountered herbicide resistance. We know herbicide resistance is out there, and unfortunately, there’s no silver bullet to managing it. However, as Rob Klewchuk of Syngenta Canada explains in this Wheat School episode, there are some management things that can be done…. Read More
Crop breeders are continuously looking at developing new varieties: how they can grow bigger yields, have resistance to certain diseases, and of course, become more efficient. However, when we get a new variety, there are often tons of questions surrounding it. One of the questions Shannon Chant of Saskatchewan Agriculture sought to answer in a… Read More