It would seem the more work and effort Ontario farmers put in to reducing neonicotinoid use and improving bee health, the less the provincial government and farmers’ own ministry wants to do with them. The Grain Farmers of Ontario recently released its pollinator health blueprint. It’s a practical, well thought-out and realistic plan, with set… Read More

The Canadian government has announced $1.83 million for an research project involving international partners looking at potatoes and potato pests at a genetic level. Parliamentary Secretary Gerald Keddy, on behalf of Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, announced the funding Fredericton on Tuesday. According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, researchers will use new data about the DNA… Read More

Perhaps you’re already acquainted with the wild world of theoretical yields. A theoretical yield is a measure of the genetic potential a plant has, if absolutely nothing hampered yield — not the growing season, environment or pests. Can you guess what soybeans’ theoretical yield is? Roughly 350 bushels an acre. Outlandish? Well, it sort of… Read More

A proposal for a one-million-acre set-aside for pollinators in Ontario by 2018 sounds like something a government or activists would propose, and farmers would lose their minds over. What? A million acres in a province losing 350 acres of prime farmland a day to development? But now, this set-aside program, the gemstone in the new… Read More

Jeff Leal, Ontario’s minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs, will meet with the Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO) on March 26th, 2015. The minister’s office says this is to meet with new GFO chair Mark Brock. This meeting follows shortly after the release of the producer group’s Pollinator Health Blueprint. The GFO’s blueprint is… Read More

The Grain Farmers of Ontario has submitted to the government its 10-point, four-year “pollinator health blueprint,” which includes a focus on increasing pollinator habitat, increasing grower education and decreasing neonicotinoid use. The Blueprint identifies five key areas to “enhance the health” of pollinators in Ontario: Habitat and nutrition; Pesticide exposure; Diseases and parasites; Communication between… Read More

Sunflowers may rival flax for the honour of “prettiest crop,” but this brightly flowered food and oilseed crop has another rather dubious distinction — disease magnet. From the very ominous sounding phoma black stem, to the insidious sclerotinia, Real Agriculture caught up with Sam Markell, extension plant pathologist with North Dakota State University to talk… Read More

Many farmers will be familiar with vDrive, a technology that allows each planter to be controlled and monitored independently. The result, powered by a 12-volt motor, is variable rate planting, that accounts for real-time changes in speed (including around corners). On January 21 of this year, Precision Planting announced the same technology would be used for granular insecticide… Read More

 

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