It seemed like a rare opportunity to bring agriculture to the fore when, in 2014, the United Nations’ General Assembly declared it to be the International Year of Family Farming. At the time, it said the declaration was to “raise the profile of family farming and smallholder farming by focusing world attention on its significant role in eradicating hunger… Read More
Author: Owen Roberts
Owen Roberts directs research communications and teaches at the University of Guelph, and is president of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists. You can find him on Twitter as
Ontario sheep and cattle producers who work with many of the province’s independent meat processors could soon find themselves fully responsible for their livestock’s hides. In April, one of the few processing companies in the province that collects hides from small and medium-sized abattoirs, announced it was ceasing operations. It had been serving Ontario abattoirs… Read More
Political stripes aside, the defeat of Rachel Notley’s NDP government in Alberta struck a nerve with people concerned about gender-balanced, inclusive representation among provincial leaders. Not since the early 1980s have provincial governments in our country all been led by men. It was glaring enough to see the photo of provincial leaders together last July… Read More
A new and timely research network being established this spring will provide the nation’s cow-calf industry with benchmark data to help with planning and management. The Canadian Cow-Calf Surveillance Network is described as “a network of herds across the country that reflects the industry.” The network will involve 175 producers across Canada and a dozen… Read More
Producers’ growing frustration over giving away valuable electronic production data has led a Guelph-based company to try to stop the bleeding with a new technology called mPowered. The technology is a blockchain-driven platform that lead developer Joel Sotomayor says will let farmers put crop, livestock, and environmental data in what he calls an “online vault”… Read More
An independent financial advisor who keeps a particularly close eye on big banks and agriculture is urging farmers to consider delaying plans to borrow money, with so much uncertainty in world trade and bank rates destined to inch up. Rob Hall, of Bankspeak Inc., an Ontario-based consultancy that helps farmers and other businesses negotiate with… Read More
New research suggests significant savings to pork producers from screening boars for a genetic abnormality that causes prenatal piglet death and smaller litters. When the test for chromosome translocation in Canada was developed five years ago at the University of Guelph by professor Allan King and his team, the savings were estimated at about 3:1… Read More
When it comes to connecting with other farmers and researchers, there’s no substitute for being there. Just consider attendance at events such as Crop Connect in Manitoba or Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show in Ontario, and that’s clear. But when producers can’t physically be at an event because they’re tied up with their herd, they can… Read More
Genetically modified tobacco has proven successful in helping reduce potentially fatal post-weaning diarrhea in piglets. The tobacco contains a protein called FaeG, derived from a bacteria called F4 enterotoxigenic E.coli . This protein prevents pathogenic E. coli, the causal agent of post-weaning diarrhea, from taking hold in piglets’ small intestines. The genetically modified tobacco is… Read More
A new mental health program for farmers called In The Know is being piloted this month in Ontario. Three versions of the program — developed over the past year at the University of Guelph with PhD candidate Briana Hagen and the guidance of a 30-member advisory committee consisting of farmers, veterinarians, mental health experts and… Read More
Cleavers is the only loser in the recent approval of a maximum residue limit (MRL) for the active weed-control ingredient quinclorac for use on canola. The resolve by industry to work collaboratively through the international research-based regulatory system means that in 2019, growers will be able to fight cleavers with a new and effective crop… Read More
The Netherlands, with its moderate climate, may seem like an odd place to grow heat-loving soybeans. But just a few decades ago, that’s what people said about Ontario, too – and soybeans have become the province’s major field crop, expected to top three million acres this year. That kind of acreage is not in the… Read More
Questions are being raised about the connection between wild ducks in Ontario, an emerging avian virus, and egg production drop in a turkey breeder flock in the province. A research team, including Ontario Veterinary College pathobiology professor Claire Jardine, found 22 per cent of almost 400 live wild ducks sampled from 23 Ontario lakes tested… Read More
Even though Kentucky’s first-ever agricultural trade mission was eight months in the making, no one would have blamed the state’s trade commission for delaying last week’s five-day trek to Ontario until the air cleared of anti-Canadian rhetoric from U.S. President Donald Trump. After all, not only are trade tensions high, but Kentucky is as pro-Trump… Read More
Food waste has become the poster child for inefficiency in agri-food. But how much are farmers contributing to the problem…or to the solution? That’s what a study led by Second Harvest and Value Chain Management International (VCMI) is trying to find out, in what they say is the world’s first comprehensive look at food loss… Read More