I think every farmer is tired of reading about activists saying agriculture is making Canadians unhealthy, especially when the opposite is true. From what I read and hear, it’s sedentary lifestyles and poor dietary choices that are leading to alarming rates of diabetes and high blood pressure, not the crops and livestock that ultimately become… Read More
Category: Features
Supplementing cattle rations with mineral may seem expensive at first glance, but the cost of an incomplete nutritional package can show up as quickly as one breeding season where fertility rates plummet. The cost of open heifers or cows adds up far faster than the cost of mineral. When deciding on a mineral supplement, amount,… Read More
Several analysts and farmers were caught off guard by the significant move to the upside made in soybean, corn and associated markets earlier this week. Corn markets moved higher, yes, but the big boom came in the form of some significant weather risk weighing on the U.S. soybean crop. As you’ll hear in the SoundCloud… Read More
If you’ve never been to a product launch from an equipment manufacturer, believe us when we say it’s typically a very big deal. More often than not there is fanfare, a light show, possibly smoke and sometimes even a parade. But when the confetti settles and the food brought out on combine headers (yes, really)… Read More
Editor’s note: This is a special guest editorial from Kim McConnell, founder of AdFarm. The following was shared with his team at AdFarm after a week at the Youth Ag Summit, held last week in Calgary. This past week, I had an opportunity to participate in an amazing experience. I moderated the week-long Global… Read More
When Bob Dylan appeared at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 playing an electric guitar, he was booed off the stage for being untrue to the genre. Ten years later, country awards named John Denver Entertainer of the Year – to the chagrin of presenter Charlie Rich (“Behind Closed Doors”), who, in front of millions… Read More
You’ve already heard a little bit about the Youth Ag Summit and my second Breakfast Television appearance (the first involving less talk, more dance). I have a little over an hour to try to drum together some of the happenings here at the summit, before we are shuffled back into presentations, sessions, breakout groups and networking…. Read More
About this time last year, the canola crop’s respectable acreage base and promising production was being consumed by disease pressure, the bizarre looking aster yellows and then came the Billion Dollar Wind that shook and shattered seeds all over the ground. As we approach swathing and even harvest of the 2013 crop, however, the crop… Read More
If your grain-farming neighbour is wincing at crop prices and that makes you smile, you might be a cattle producer. And so begins a series of events and conditions converging to support solid cattle prices for the near term. As you’ll hear in this interview with Anne Wasko, of Gateway Livestock, cattlement are enjoying strong… Read More
Establishing the vaccination needs and schedule for your operation is going to depend heavily on your herd’s risk level. Fully closed herds, where not even bulls are bought in, have a lower risk level and different risk profile than a herd that is buying replacement heifers, feeder cattle or mature animals, be they bulls or… Read More
After harvest is a great time to get out and scout soil conditions and start planning soil management passes for the fall and spring. One of the tillage questions that often comes up at field days is depth settings on implements, like a soil ripper. The answer to how deep you need to go is… Read More
In a surprising move, U.S. company Merck Animal Health has suspended sales of the beta-agonist Zilmax, a cattle growth promotant, according to a Reuters report. The decision comes on the heels of Tyson Foods Inc. announcing last week that the company would no longer accept slaughter cattle that had been fed the feed additive. JBS… Read More
If you had asked me in February what “CYL” was, I likely would have answered with a completely made-up, yet entirely coy response. Six months later? I have a whole new network of industry leaders at my fingertips, a very encouraging mentor, a community of friends, educational opportunities galore and a $1,000 budget to attend… Read More
The summer of 2013 is turning out to be nothing like the last two years, which may prove problematic for several first-time soybean growers in the province. While 2013 soybean acres likely did not hit the massive 1.3 million mark once estimated, there are likely about a million acres of the nitrogen-fixing crop out in… Read More
Herbicide spray drift gets all the attention, and for good reason — the impacts are visual and nearly immediate. Does that mean drift doesn’t occur with other products? Absolutely not. It also doesn’t mean it’s OK to skip steps to minimize drift of fungicides or insecticides. The reasons for doing so are financial, agronomic, environmental… Read More