As harvest comes to an end over the next couple weeks it is incredibly important to start laying the groundwork for next years canola crop. The first step is soil sampling and with the warmer temperatures that we are supposed to get the next two weeks this is not the right time. As Ross Mckenzie… Read More
Recently I travelled to Indianapolis, Indiana to visit the global headquarters of Dow Agro Sciences. I had the opportunity along with several other people from the Canadian ag media to entrench ourselves in the company’s strategy and objectives to better understand the company. Much of the presentation had to do with with the opportunities for… Read More
When farmers make decisions on the varieties that they are going to purchase many farmers enact different strategies. For a vast amount of farmers the decision is based on trial results that are published by private companies and independent sources. There is just one problem with that….The prairie canola variety trials have been abandoned by… Read More
By Shaun Haney This week the Grain Farmers of Ontario, Ag Canada, farmers and industry have made a major commitment to plant breeding in Eastern Canada. There was a lot of excitement in the Grain Farmers of Ontario booth at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show this week. It didn’t take long to quickly figure out what… Read More
Canola research continues to receive a lot of attention from the breeding programs around the world. In Canada canola is a very important crop for seed companies, processors and most of all farmers. Due to the fact canola is an accepted biotech crop in Canada researchers are working very diligently to increase the traits available… Read More
By Megan Oleksyn Recently I attended the Western Stock Growers€™ Association€™s (WSGA) summer meeting, this year held in Donalda, AB. Why Donalda, you ask? I asked the same question after I got out my google map and found out just where Donalda was. The answer to €˜why Donalda?€™ really intrigued me. In this small Alberta… Read More
There is a lot of interest this year in winter wheat in Western Canada. Much of this interest stems from the very wet spring that we had this year in the west and the tremendous yields it looks like we will have. Many farmers have either emailed me or called wondering why is everyone so… Read More
One of the oldest traditions in the summer time is for farmers to attend local field days that are hosted by ag-input retailers or government researchers. Depending on where you are in the country you have probably attended many different ones at times for a number of reasons. Many people attend to see the… Read More
Many people look at services like Google from just the front end which is search. Google is really more about the back end application of data. The search engine allows them to collect infinite bytes of data so that they can make advertising revenue from the searcher. The better the data set that Google has… Read More
Many of you have heard the industry talk about the need to develop research initiatives. Without research there is no innovation and Canadian agriculture will begin to lose ground to its international competitors. Across the country provincial and federal government agricultural funding is getting cut which is threatening our ability to compete in the long… Read More
Fusarium continues to be a major concern for farmers as harvest begins in the US and parts of Ontario. Many farmers routinely apply a fungicide to their cereal crops to try and minimize the impact of fusarium. Its getting closer to the fungicide window for Western Canadian farmers and they need to really be considering… Read More
Earlier this week I published an interview with David Sippell the President of CSTA regarding Bill C-474. Some people emailed me with positive and negative responses to the bill. I decided to find out more by interviewing the man that has initiated this private members bill. This also answers criticism from some of you that… Read More
At the ISF 2010 World Seed Congress last week I had the chance to talk to Dave Sippell, President of the Canadian Seed Trade Association about the potential impacts of Bill C-474. Dr. Sippell discusses the Canadian Seed Trade’s position and why they think this bill would be putting the future of Canadian seed innovation… Read More
As you all know the debate around food safety continues to rage on. As we have discussed on this site before, the debate many times comes down to the discussion around combating the theory by many consumers that organic food is more healthy and better for the environment. What we see on tv is people… Read More
Have you heard of CIGI? Do you know what CIGI does? Does the Canadian International Grain Institute make a difference for Canadian farmers and industry? You bet!!! I recently stopped at CIGI’s office in Winnipeg and had a great time learning about what CIGI is and what they do. I had what I thought was… Read More