This is part 3 of 4 of my interview with Syngenta Canada President, Jay Bradshaw. In this segment Jay talks about how the variety registration system in Canada needs to be improved and how transgenic wheat will bring benefits to farmers and consumers. Transgenic wheat is an issue that will have to eventually be dealt with. Transgenic… Read More
Last week while I was in Edmonton I listened to Stan Blade, Executive Director of the Alberta Agricultural Research Institute (AARI), talk about where Alberta is focusing cereal research in the long term. Currently in Alberta the three biggest products in terms of value are beef (3.104 billion), canola (1.216 billion) and wheat ( 1.251… Read More
I just listened to Bill Lapp, an economist with Advanced Economic Solutions speak about the outlook for commodities in Edmonton. Lapp was very interesting, candid and provided great insight into the commodity market. The key points that Lapp focused on were: Brazil, Russia, India and China have led the world growth over the last 10… Read More
Yesterday, Rick Cassson, MP Lethbridge hosted Federal Agricultural Minister, Gerry Ritz in Lethbridge. On top of serving at the Farm Credit Canada Breakfast at Ag Expo and meeting with a farmer round table, Ritz also announced 15.5 million in funding for the Canadian Triticale Biorefiniery Initiative. I participated in the farmer round table where all twenty of the… Read More
Last week there was a very unique joint venture formed that will provide additional genetics to the Western Canadian market place. Alliance Seed Corporation is a new seed company formed by Parrish & Heimbecker, Patterson Grain and several inland terminals in Saskatchewan. As Dale mentions in the video, the new company will be focusing in… Read More
After visiting different fields across Chile, I really came to appreciate the differences in irrigation methods. On the larger fields, pivots are becoming more common but there is still many stationary guns and even flood irrigation. Most irrigation water is transported by dirt ditch while cement ditch infrastructure is underway. Chilean farmers are able to grow very… Read More
Like many industries based on plant science and biology, there is alot of risk. This is definitely the case with the collapse of the Chilean salmon and winter canola industry. Due to lack of proper environmental practices and controls the salmon farms have been infected with a virus which is killing the salmon population. Consequently… Read More
I will be in Chile until February 14th. I am going to try and post to the blog as much as I can while I am here but I will probably be able to add the majority of the content after I get back. So far on my trip I have toured several canola fields… Read More
Last week at the Crop Production Show I sat down with David Asbridge, Client Development Manager / Senior Economist with Doane Advisory Services. Doane Advisory Services is the largest agricultural advisory company in the United States. Here is Part 1 and 2 of the interview that I participated in with David at Crop Week in… Read More
All of us have opinions on where canola prices are going in the future. We are all more experts in what has happened in the past rather than where the future is leading. Sometimes you need to talk to someone that knows what they are talking about and has the facts to back it up…. Read More
If you cannot see the video above, click here Canada has very diverse agronomic conditions across the country. Many times farmers just think of the big crops like corn, canola, soybeans, barley, wheat and oats and forget that there are many other crops being grown in Canada. One of those crops is Camelina, which is… Read More
Garth Donald – Dynagra VRT – Fertility Management from RealAgriculture.com on Vimeo. It is no secret that fertilizer is a hot topic for North American farmers this winter. With the volatility of fertilizer over the past 12 months and the increased speculation towards where the price is going, it seems that farmers and retailers have… Read More
There has been a lot of discussion at CropWeek today about seed varieties. Whether it is corn, canola, wheat or barley, there are some key fundamental criteria that you should use to make the right variety selection decision. I am sure that every farmer has different criteria and puts different levels of importance on each… Read More
There are signs developing which indicate much higher fertilizer prices come this spring. The biggest being last weeks announcement to halt production at Agrium’s Ft. Saskatchewan production facility. As expected the pipeline is full due to lower purchases by farmers this fall as they waited for lower prices. It really feels like the perfect storm… Read More
Several years ago, farmers debated the possible benefits that Round up Ready wheat would or would not bring to the market place. Based on the result of the industry debate at the time the idea was shelved. One of the negative fall outs from this has been that transgenic wheat in general has been held… Read More
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