Can I just say now that I am SO glad to see tail lights on this month? February may be the shortest month of the year, but the combination of wicked weather (third coldest winter on record that Manitoba has experienced), a busy schedule and a plague-like illness has made this month feel 10 days… Read More

Bad news out of Manitoba this morning, as the first suspected case of porcine epidemic diarrhea is awaiting confirmation from the disease lab here in Winnipeg. The Chief Vet’s office has already confirmed the infection at a wean to finish operation in hog-heavy southeastern Manitoba, but until the lab confirms it it’s still only suspected…. Read More

First, an apology. Eagle-eyed RealAgriculture readers will note that this column was absent last week. After three days at FarmTech ’14 there was more than enough to share, but no time to do it, so I’ll work some of last week into this, if you don’t mind. It’s no secret I like trains. Furthermore, I… Read More

We’ll start this week’s column on a somber note, because this is serious — yesterday it was announced that the first case of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus has been confirmed on a hog farm in Middlesex county in the southwest corner of Ontario. The details are still preliminary, but this deadly virus appears to have… Read More

I feel like I probably could have written a daily update of all that went on this week, as each day had the RealAgriculture team busy. If you attended CropSphere or any of the Crop Production Week festivities in Saskatoon, perhaps we even crossed paths. The week kicked off with a bang (and more than… Read More

While many of us industry types were getting back into routine this week, the bad weather hangover in Ontario was still raging. Our own Shaun Haney got hung up in Las Vegas while trying to get to the Southwest Agricultural Conference (SWAC), and even Bern Tobin, our Ontario field editor missed the first day do… Read More

Change is a funny thing — difficult for some, painfully too slow for others. But if we look at a 10-year arc of, say, the grain markets, public policy, food trends and so on, that decade of change features individual events that string together to form a direction and momentum towards real change. 2013 featured… Read More

After a few months of the Agronomy Geeks podcasts, I’ve learned a few things. Like how I still don’t like the sound of my own voice, but that I really do love agronomy enough to push through that and continue. While I do enjoy exploring new topics, perhaps what I’m enjoying most are the people… Read More

This week started out very different from most weeks, as word came that the Minister of Agriculture would be making a “very large announcement” in the afternoon. I shuffled my schedule and packed my gear and braved the cold to be in the audience when ag minister Gerry Ritz announced Bill C-18, the Canadian Agricultural… Read More

When your coworkers work in three different provinces, it can be tough to ever actually see each other. Here at RealAgriculture, we try to get to get together whenever we can, but sometimes the weather conspires against us. And so, the blizzard that smacked around Calgary on Monday, causing travel delays and flight cancellations impacted… Read More

I’ve got to tell you, this week has been a bit of a marathon, maybe only a little bit because it started off in the rosy afterglow of a Rider win in the 101st Grey Cup championship (sorry Ti-Cat fans!). That, and we were everywhere this week. Everywhere! The RealAgriculture team was in Banff for… Read More

I’d say I’m more of a proactive than reactive person, but there are most certainly times when circumstances simply require us to react. Last week, Heinz announced the closure of its Leamington-based tomato processing plant, and 40% of the Ontario processing tomato industry evaporated. The reasons it happened and the fallout to both the town,… Read More

In the last week, RealAgriculture.com became a totally big deal. Yes, we rolled out a podcast, the first of a few in fact, and these audio-only features will become a regular part of RealAgriculture.com’s agronomy coverage. The podcast format is neat in a few ways: one, it’s a bit longer, so we can explore topics… Read More

Well, it’s official. The busy winter conference season is upon us, and I, for one, couldn’t be happier. This week, the RealAgriculture.com team took in Agri-Trade at Red Deer, Alta., and the first-ever Cereals North America conference. Also on this week was the Royal in Toronto, and though we didn’t make it there, we did… Read More

 

Register for a RealAgriculture account to manage your Shortcut menu instead of the default.

Register