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
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
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
Fusarium has become a massive concern for many wheat growers on the prairies. Fortunately many plant breeders in both Canada and the US are truly focused on providing higher tolerances in new varieties. Many potential agronomic issues can be solved thru plant breeding but the challenge is that it takes time. Plant breeding is not… Read More
Richard Phillips is the Executive Director of the Grain Growers of Canada and he is a very busy man these days with all the things going on in the grain industry. Richard was apart of a panel discussion at the SaskSeed annual meeting at CropWeek. The panel discussion was about whether or not the grain… Read More
Monsanto has been named the company of the year by Forbes magazine for the January 2010 issue. Monsanto is recognized for outstanding innovation in its field and as a result healthy performance on wall street. For me Monsanto is one of those hot button topics that sends off flares and fireworks for all sides of… Read More
With public research in breeding getting cut back significantly across North America, some added funding is always welcomed. On Wednesday, the Alberta Livestock Meat Agency (ALMA) announced that they are going to invest eight million dollars into feed grains research. This money will fund projects in the area of varietal development and developing use technologies…. Read More
I attended the Canadian Seed Trade Meeting this week in Montreal. Every year the Canadian seed trade gets together to discuss the issues affecting the industry and meet within the industry to discuss business deals. The seed industry has many issues affecting it currently. Between flax exports, potential introduction of transgenic wheat, pollen flow and… Read More
This is part two of my interview with the President and CEO of the Alberta Livestock Meat Agency (ALMA), Gordon Cove. In this interview I asked questions provided to me by producers. I gathered questions from Twitter and Agriville and asked them in no particular order to Mr. Cove. I would suggest that many people at the… Read More
I was fortunate earlier this week to meet with the President & CEO of the Alberta Livestock Meat Agency, Gordon Cove. My interview is broken into two parts and I hope that you find it interesting and look upon it objectively. No matter where your meat politics reside you have to admit that the Alberta… Read More
There was a time when agriculture and food were sacred topics to the public. People were either on the farm or one generation removed which instilled a connection to the source of the food that we eat. In the past five years that has definitely changed as many food activists have begun attacking the large… Read More
As I have noted before on this site, this summer has been very interesting in terms of the changing landscape in wheat research and breeding. Monsanto, Bayer, and Syngenta are all engaged in the wheat breeding game. I have received, many emails from readers, asking the same question. “What will this mean for my farm… Read More
Dave Zino is the Executive Director of the NCBA Beef Culinary Center in Chicago. I had a chance to meet Dave at the Elanco Beef Consultants Forum 2009 in Banff earlier this month. Dave is a truly fascinating guy who has a real passion for how beef is cooked and trying to educate the public… Read More
The following article was published on Farms.com and Truthabouttrade.org. It was written by Dean Kleckner, an Iowa farmer, who chairs Truth About Trade & Technology Norman Borlaug once told me that he would trade away all of his life’s accomplishments just for the chance to play second base for the Chicago Cubs.Thank goodness he couldn’t… Read More