Quality and consistency. That’s what international buyers expect with Canadian wheat. It’s been said a thousand times already, but if you ask Saskatchewan farmer Gerrid Gust what his take-home message was after visiting customers in North Africa and the Middle East, he can’t help but emphasize the importance of maintaining Canada’s reputation for quality and… Read more »
Category: Farm Travel
Women Take Charge in Agricultural Co-op Café Femenino
Women are looking for new opportunities in agriculture – in production, leadership and business, among them. When this search extends beyond Canada’s borders, the commodities may change. But the principles are the same, including equality, participation and recognition. Take Peru, for example, where coffee is a very popular commodity. Coffee production there everywhere else is… Read more »
TWORA — Agritechnica, Agri-Trend and the Start of Ag Show Season — Nov 12
From Agri-Trade to Agritechnica, Red Deer to Hanover, farm show season has started. This week’s TWORA podcast takes us to Germany for the world’s largest farm equipment show, along with the latest news highlights: Agri-Trend’s sale to Trimble, All-Tech acquiring Masterfeeds, the launch of the “International Year of Pulses” and more: Subscribe: iTunes | Android… Read more »
Agritechnica 2015: Using Gaming and Virtual Reality to Spread the Allure of Agriculture
Call them tradeshow booth gimmicks or whatever you please but at Agrictechnica 2015 the floor is alive with remote controlled tractors, 3D virtual reality goggles, machinery simulators and farming playstation games. Don’t Miss TechTour LIVE – Register Today It is clear that gaming technology is bringing young and old closer to real life farming. Agritechnica… Read more »
Saik’s Agri-Treks: Martagon Lilies, “Anti-Deer” Cedar and Ieuan Evans (Pt 3)
In this episode of Saik’s Agri-Treks, we are back on the tour of Ieuan Evans’ 4.5 acres of diversity. Besides being credited with discovering the Evans cherry tree in a gardener’s home near Fort Saskatchewan, Evans is also well-known for his passion for lilies. Saik’s Agri-Treks: Sunflowers, Sheep and Ieuan Evans Saik’s Agri-Treks: Grafting, Non-Browning Apples and Ieuan Evans… Read more »
Saik’s Agri-Treks: Grafting, Non-Browning Apples and Ieuan Evans (Pt. 2)
Related: Saik’s Agri-Treks: Sunflowers, Sheep and Ieuan Evans (Pt. 1) In this episode of Saik’s Agri-Treks, we are back on the tour of Ieuan Evans’ “4.5 acres of ecosystem.” Rob Saik, host of Agri-Treks and founder of Agri-Trend, shows us an edible mountain ash, apple grafts, cherry and plum trees. He then gives us a tour of the greenhouse,… Read more »
Post TPP: Forgiving but not forgetting New Zealand
Those who oppose agricultural subsidies have long held New Zealand out as the ultimate success story. According to their line of reasoning, if the Kiwis can farm without subsidies, so can we. In fact, before and during the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks, New Zealand’s iconic status with its admirers was so elevated that to… Read more »
Saik’s Agri-Treks: Sunflowers, Sheep and Ieuan Evans
Saik’s Agri-Treks has taken us to favelas in Brazil, not-quite-elephant-proof fencing in Africa, Agritechnica in Germany and desert irrigation in Arizona. But this time, Rob Saik takes us on an exploration of our own backyard — or, Ieuan Evans’ backyard — in sunny Alberta. Related: Will Agriculture be Allowed to Feed 9 Billion? Rob Saik’s TEDx Talk Evans is… Read more »
UK Grower Sets New Wheat Yield Record
The ceiling on what’s possible with wheat yield has been pushed higher once again. A farmer in northeast England has just claimed a new world wheat yield record of 16.52 tonnes per hectare, or in North American terms, 246 bushels per acre. As was pointed out in this Wheat School episode, yields surpassing 120 bushels per acre… Read more »
Why Bale When You Can Pellet — Premos 5000 Wins Agritechnica Gold
Author’s Note: Okay, there are probably plenty of reasons you should bale instead of pellet (like: we don’t really have a choice yet). It’s just, well, it’s not every day that I get to use a noun as a verb in a headline. Last week I stumbled upon one of the coolest tweets I’ve seen all… Read more »
Nuffield Canada Announces 2016 Scholars
Nuffield Canada has announced its scholarship recipients for 2016 – Tony Balkwill, of Paris, Ontario, Clair Doan, of Norwich, Ontario, and Tim Smith, of Coronation, Alberta. Nuffield scholarships of $15,000 each are awarded to men and women who are judged to have the greatest potential to create value for them, their industries and their communities through… Read more »
How the Other Half Farms — Travel As a Management Tool
No matter where you go in the world, farming happens. It can look very different, of course — from state-of-the-art rooftop greenhouses, to expansive, scrub pastures in Australia, to scratching out barely enough to eat from a tiny plot of land in Kenya. If agriculture looks so different, what’s there to learn from seeing how… Read more »
Wheat School: Reaching Wheat’s Full Genetic Potential — The UK Perspective
Wheat production in the United Kingdom hovers just below 200, 000 hectares (about a half a million acres). It’s used for export markets, human consumption, and plays a key role in animal rations. Thanks in large part to the UK’s temperate climate, yields of 120bu/ac are not uncommon. And, as you’ll find in the following… Read more »
Escape the Cold: The Value of Seeing How Your Crop is Used in Other (Warmer) Parts of the World
Need an excuse to take a trip to a warmer place this winter? Can it be justified as a field trip for the farm? Cold temperatures might be a good enough reason to head south, and maybe it’s easy for him to say because he’s newly retired, but the former CEO of the Canadian International Grains… Read more »
When Farm Expertise is Scarce — How Radio and Cell-Phones are Helping African Farmers Pick Up Ag Info
Whether it’s your favourite ag website, the radio or newspaper, Twitter, your area sales rep or the local ag extension office, farmers in Canada and most developed countries have many sources to turn to for expertise. Never mind scarcity, information overload is often a problem. But imagine farming without electricity, without a computer, without the… Read more »