What does it mean to farm? Why do it? For many, it is a question of passion. Passion for the lifestyle €“ the satisfaction of working the land; the freedom to be your own boss in a world that€™s not constricted by office walls and collared shirts; the day-to-day enjoyment of hard work and fresh… Read More
Category: Agronomy
Want to know how to increase your spring wheat yield by 40%? Looking for a way to spread out the seeding of your spring crops? If you are in an area of Canada that is applicable to frost seeding the rewards can be high but it is definitely not a simple process. I talked to… Read More
I have always considered farmers to be a very innovative group. I mean think about those episodes of the Prairie Farm report that showed a guy converting a truck into a high clearance sprayer and it also could be used to mow the grass when needed. This week I spent some time at the Innovative… Read More
By Garth Donald, Dynagra As the world grows, the agricultural industry is asked to produce more to help feed the expanding population. The main issue growers face is that urban sprawl is eating up the productive farm land. We have less arable acres to work with as a result. Now our crop varieties are getting better for… Read More
Emotion is a powerful thing. Many people make decisions based on emotion and not science. There is some irony in all of this based on our scientific knowledge has never been higher. We know more about the genome of plants than ever before in our history. Yet at the same time emotions are high and… Read More
I am finding more and more ranchers and feeders are struggling to find the answers to their short term profitability issues. I just hope that if ALMA has success there is enough people in the industry still to benefit from the hard work. At the Tiffin conference I really detected frustration from producers on how… Read More
I talked to Dustin Gosnell, Director of Strategic Planning and Corporate Policy, Canadian Wheat Board about GM wheat and the CWB’s position on the latest WTO issues. Agricultural trade issues are really sensitive and controversial issues right now. Never mind the trade issues that North America has with China and the other BRIC countries but the… Read More
Buying a combine has become a much larger decision than in the past. Combines are a piece of equipment that you use only in the fall but are incredibly important to getting the crop in the bin. Like most pieces of machinery they have become more sophisticated although the threshing concept is still based on… Read More
I have seen some of my grandfather Mehalko’s old farming photos where they were seeding with twelve foot drills. That twelve foot drill had a relatively inaccurate rate seeding tool and it was fairly difficult to manage depth. All of this and not to mention the open cab. I visited the SeedHawk booth to check… Read More
In my opinion, inoculants are a very interesting product. Products like Nodulator fix Nitrogen which has benefits for this years soybean or pulse crop but also has extreme benefits for next years cereal crop to. Its one of those amazing innovations in agriculture that we take for granted sometimes until you really sit down and… Read More
Last year at this time you could not talk to any farmer in North America without talking about fertilizer. Fertilizer is still a hot topic but it is more centred now around variable rate technology or products like ESN. ESN allows farmers to apply more fertilizer at seeding time due to the timed slow release… Read More
At one time we mainly used shovels to move grain. When the auger was invented it was a huge innovation for not only moving grain but also for saving the backs of farmers. At CropWeek there was more augers than you would believe. The auger is no longer the only way to move grain today… Read More
A famous saying is that, “Knowledge is power.” One of the ways that we acquire knowledge is through research. We must engage research in order to make sure that we continue to learn and improve on the way we did things yesterday. Denice Maurice is the Vice President of Crop Production at Canola Council of… Read More
Wheat midge has great impact on wheat growers in many areas. This year will be the first year that farmers will be able to purchase midge tolerant varieties. There are three different varieties right now and more in the pipeline. It is critical that as an industry we properly manage this great new innovation in… Read More
Treating your seed has become much more popular through the years as products become safer for the user and the environment. No longer looked upon as snake oil by farmers, seed treatments provide another form of insurance to getting a great yield. Whether it is corn, soybeans, canola or cereals, farmers are seeing the benefits…. Read More