Another year gone and another harvest in the books for farmers in the West. This year had its share of difficulties, with wet conditions delaying and in some cases completely destroying efforts to get a crop in in some areas. For those farmers that did get a crop in, the threat of disease loomed heavy… Read More
This years harvest samples show an alarming rise in ergot infection in wheat crops. The information comes from a Canadian Grain Commission report that shows upwards of 20 percent of western Canadian wheat crops have some degree of ergot infection. Ergot tolerances are very tight due to the toxic qualities of the ergot body that… Read More
RealAgriculture.com is happy to present a new feature segment we call “Under the Microscope”. We have partnered with BioVision Seed Labs to educate and inform producers with respect to what goes on inside the seed lab and hopefully take some of the mystery out of the process. In the first episode we talk to Holly… Read More
The CWB’s plebiscite has resulted in a marginal victory for the single desk die hards as John Depape expected on RealAgriculture last week. The next events in this saga will produce predictable outcomes as well in my opinion. Now that the CWB has a form (subject to debate) of approval from farmers they will begin… Read More
I have been reading two groups are doomed in the face of the single desk being extinguished. The first is producer cars and the second is the inland terminals. With the elimination of the single desk, the Inland Terminal Association of Canada finds itself faced with a number of challenges to overcome and a number… Read More
Anyone who grows malt barley knows the number of specifications it has to meet in order to be acceptable. There are some years where those specifications can prove very frustrating to growers. When that barley doesn’t meet specifications, one of the areas that gets the blame is variety, the grain company or the CWB. After… Read More
A lot of work is going into technologies that will increase plant survivability and yield. Challenging growing conditions coupled with an increased global demand for food mean we have to give crop production every advantage possible. There are a number of factors we can manipulate when it comes to optimal growing conditions for our crops…. Read More
Last week RealAgriculture.com took a went on a bit of a road trip. We were happy to be part of the Western Farm Progress Show in Regina, Saskatchewan. During that time we got to see a lot of cool new products and talk to a lot of interesting people. One of our favourite things to… Read More
There have been a lot of numbers bounced around when it comes to total unseeded acres across the prairies. If you were to talk to five different people, you’d probably get five different numbers. The CWB estimates somewhere between 4 to 6 million acres have gone unseeded across the west. Those numbers tend to have… Read More
By Shaun Haney With the Conservatives getting a majority last week it would appear that the CWB single desk is cooked. One of he more controversial parts of the speculation was created by Gerry Ritz who said that there would not be a farmer vote on the issue. Groups like the NFU have been snorting… Read More
Last weekend I was at a shop party with many of my neighbours in Picture Butte. Get a bunch of farmers, ranchers and feedyard owners together and what else is there to talk about other than grain prices and hockey. Barley was definitely the topic of discussion at several tables. For me its very interesting… Read More
In this weeks episode of the Beef Market Update, Anne Dunford discusses the need for cattle feeders to see feed prices and Canadian Dollar go lowr based on the calf placement prices. The reality is that this will probably not happen in the short term, which will lead to losses in this turn of cattle… Read More
The National Farmers Union (NFU) has been throwing stones at Federal Agricultural Minister Gerry Ritz this week about the EU / Canada Free Trade Agreement that should be finalized by the end of the year. In a recent Better Farming story, NFU President Terry Boehm is quoted as saying……. These measures are so draconian that… Read More
Today the CWB released the October PRO’s and the result was a modest increase in comparison to what some thought. With the recent run in corn, the coarse grain complex has some bullish weight behind it. To wrap up the PRO’s, I talked to Jonathan Driedger from FarmLink Marketing Solutions. (SEE THE VIDEO BELOW) One… Read More