You’ve worked hard and expanded the farm’s land base from about 1,200 acres to 2,400. Where’s your money better spent — a second combine or a grain dryer? Scott Keller, who farms at New Norway, Alta., says the economics are cut-and-dried on that topic. According to Keller —hands down — you’re better off setting up… Read More
Category: Crop Production
Have you ever thumbed through your child’s textbook only to be left shaking your head? RealAgriculture founder Shaun Haney was helping his youngest son with his science homework when a small sidebar on herbicide resistance caught his eye: In my sons grade 9 text book it says that herbicide resistance is due to weeds and… Read More
News of Cargill spinning off its malting business was first announced last December. The deal to sell the global malt business to Axreal’s subsidary, Boortmalt, has officially closed, as of October 31. Boortmalt’s parent company, Axreal, is France’s largest grain cooperative. Cargill had one lone malting company in Canada — Prairie Malt, based at Biggar,… Read More
To achieve cleaner fields, identifying the right time to spray is crucial. An early herbicide application is an effective way to get ahead of tough weeds. Using a dicamba-based system like the Roundup Ready Xtend® Crop System offers the flexibility of pre- and post-emergent applications and the ability to keep fields clean longer, thanks to… Read More
Have you got your soil tests done for the year? If not, that’s just fine, as late fall is actually a great time to test soil nutrient levels, says Ross McKenzie, now-retired soil scientist (from Alberta Agriculture). Without a soil test to guide the decision, farmers are choosing fertilizer rates “by guess and by golly,”… Read More
Grain markets entered November on a mixed-week of performance, but most grain prices did find some positive gains for the month of October. Canola and hard red spring wheat were the only futures markets who didn’t find positive gains in October, suggesting that the price run-up at the end of September might’ve priced in anticipated… Read More
Raven Industries, Inc. has taken majority ownership in autonomous farming platform DOT Technology Corp, the company says. The funds garnered in the sale will be used to “support the continued commercialization and evolution of the Dot Power Platform and Dot Ready Implements.” Raven and Dot began working together in May 2018, when it was announced… Read More
There are a few treats out there in among the tricks of this harvest season. Surprisingly, mature corn and decent soybean yields are making some farmers happy as they put the 2019 growing season to bed, but there are plenty of areas still struggling with immature and wet corn and super low soybean yields. In… Read More
Barriers to entry are keeping the very people who should be growing cannabis out of the picture. That’s one of the reasons cannabis professional reporter with The Globe and Mail Jameson Berkow is calling Canada’s first year of legalized cannabis a dud. The verdict is in, and Year One of legalized cannabis in Canada was… Read More
Over the next five years, Syngenta will spend $2 billion to help farmers not only prepare for, but also tackle the threats posed by climate change. The announcement was made by the company’s CEO, Erik Fyrwald, who also announced the money will be matched by a drive to reduce the carbon intensity of the company’s… Read More
If dogs can detect trace amounts of drugs in luggage, could they be trained to sniff out plant disease, too? The short answer is yes — and a research scientist headed up a project to prove it in a one-year, proof of concept study out of Alberta. Mike Harding, research scientist with Alberta Agriculture &… Read More
As if this harvest wasn’t already frustrating enough, some farmers are left shaking their head as they leave the elevator. Recently, RealAgriculture’s inbox has been flooded with concerns about elevators checking wheat’s falling number on top of visual inspections for grading. General manager of the Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions, Tom Steve, says the organization… Read More
A slow start, high winds, and less-than-ideal harvest conditions have many farmers in the Maritimes working overtime to try to get the crop in before snow flies. “For 2019, we had again a slower start, really things didn’t crank up until well into May,” says Syngenta Canada’s Eric Richter, in this excerpt from RealAg Radio’s… Read More
According to a recent survey, farmers are requesting changes to the two proposed models of seed royalty collection presented earlier this year by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The Alberta Federation of Agriculture (AFA), the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS), and the Keystone Agricultural Producers of Manitoba (KAP), have taken the past three months to… Read More
There are some surprising yields being reported across much of Ontario — some shockingly good, others disastrously bad. For at least one farmer, a timely rain or two on just half the field means the same surprise happened in the same pass of the combine. In this week’s edition of Wheat Pete’s Word, host Peter… Read More