Grains started the month of December with wheat in the driver’s seat thanks to concerns out of Russia and Australia. In the Land Down Undaa, ABARES, the Aussie version of the USDA, cut its official wheat production estimate by one million tonnes (or about four per cent from its previous estimate) to 23.22 million tonnes,… Read More
Category: Features
A media training exercise I do with some of my colleagues is to get farmers to pitch us agriculture stories, and we respond like journalists would. It’s a bit exaggerated — the farmers don’t have much time to think about their stories, and we kick back when the pitch is made, to ensure they’ve covered… Read More
The discovery of avian flu in BC, StatsCan’s latest crop production estimates, Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers and more — get caught up on this week’s farm news by listening to the TWORA podcast with Kelvin Heppner for December 4th, 2014: Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | All Podcasts
If beef prices at the retail level stay elevated, will consumers pick pork and poultry? Have we topped out on these cattle markets? It’s questions like these that many ranchers and feed yard operators have been thinking about, so in this special “Ask Annie” edition of the Beef Market Update, Shaun Haney went to the audience… Read More
Got a minute? That’s about all it takes to start thinking about agvocating. You never know where your commitment will lead. That’s the word from Greg Peterson, the 23-year-old Internet phenom from the mid-Kansas PetersonFarm Brothers. Some of my University of Guelph agricultural communications students and I were lucky to spend time with Greg earlier… Read More
Innovations in agriculture are increasingly centred around improving efficiencies to both time and labour. The Neeralta grain extractor and bag roller is no exception. Extracting grain from 9′, 10′ and 12′ bags, it’s easy to operate, quick to transition and can drop grain bags directly onto the back of a truck or trailer. Have you entered the… Read More
The Ontario government’s plans to reduce the use of neonicotinoid seed treatments, the passage of the Bill C-18 (the Agricultural Growth Act) in the House of Commons and actual full-contact jousting at Canada’s largest livestock show — Lyndsey Smith and Debra Murphy join Kelvin Heppner on TWORA for November 27th, 2014: Related: Grown-Up Bullying Alive… Read More
If you’ve noticed soil getting a whole lot more attention lately, it’s for good reason. Not only are scientists beginning to unlock many of the mysteries of what lies beneath, but agriculture has also started to wake up to the importance and potential of soil management on yield. Farmers have always known that soil is… Read More
Why do we speed when we know it’s wrong? Why do we text while driving? Why smoke, when we know it’s bad? Why continue overusing traditional chemistry herbicide applications when we know they’re causing problems? That’s what Canadian weed scientists want to know. They’re getting frustrated with what seems to be farmers’ general unwillingness to… Read More
The outlook for grain and oilseed prices might not be as bad — and the cattle market’s trajectory not as good — as the general consensus, according to our guest on TWORA for November 19th, 2014 (click above to listen.) From the Ag Excellence Conference in Winnipeg, Kelvin Heppner chats with FCC chief economist JP Gervais… Read More