A sad sign of how tough things have been in the cattle feeding business — one of Canada’s largest feeding operations is shutting down. Good news! A deal to keep Canadian canola flowing into China has apparently been reached, while canola growers are voicing concerns about the Bayer-Monsanto deal. And farmers and rural residents in… Read More
Category: Podcasts
It’s hard to believe regulators would allow one company to own 95 percent of the canola traits on the market, but executives from Bayer and Monsanto are not offering any hints on whether they expect to be forced to divest canola seed assets as part of their proposed marriage. Both Robb Fraley, chief technology officer with… Read More
It’s late September, the days are warm, and the combines are starting to roll into the edible beans and soybeans. Corn silage harvest has also started and that means we kick off this week’s Wheat Pete’s Word with a reminder and a plead — stay safe and use those lights! From there, we head into… Read More
There’s a big durum crop coming off in Western Canada, but wet conditions have resulted in high disease levels in much of it. The Statistics Canada report released Tuesday pegged total Canadian durum production at 7.3 million tonnes, up from 5.4 million in 2015 and 5.2 million in 2014. Meanwhile, last week the Ministry of… Read More
Soggy conditions have slowed harvest progress in much of Western Canada, as untimely showers have hampered crop quality and left combines standing still (or stuck). And the days when harvest equipment has been rolling have not been easy in many areas. It’s a similar story in the futures markets, as bearish supplies are making it tough for sustained… Read More
Agricultural advocates encourage farmers to tell their story. Maybe the most interesting storyteller on the farm would be the tractor. We’re seeing tonnes of innovation in autonomous and intelligent machines — what if a tractor could tell its own story? Every tractor would have a very interesting tale to tell. The tractor pulls many implements,… Read More
With every bounce off of a new low in the cattle market, there’s hope prices have finally bottomed out. October live cattle futures in the U.S. have recovered by $7-8 in the last week, after dropping to around the $100 mark in the first week of September. “Hopefully we can look back, and I know… Read More
Case IH has unveiled its latest offering in spray technology, known as AIM Command Flex. All 2017 Patriot sprayers will come factory-equipped with the nodes required to run the ISO Virtual Terminal (VT) compatible Flex system, explains Mark Burns, Case’s marketing manager for application equipment, in this video. “It’s the new generation of spray technology… Read More
Between Bayer-Monsanto and PotashCorp-Agrium there’s plenty of big news to discuss this week as we see the trend of consolidation among crop input suppliers continue. Meanwhile, RealAg is well-represented at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show in Woodstock, Ontario, as Lyndsey takes a break from demoing tractors, getting sky-high views in a telehandler and posting Instagram stories to… Read More
It’s a special edition of the Word this week, as Peter Johnson, our resident agronomist at RealAgriculture, hosted his weekly agronomy discussion live at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show on Tuesday. It was a chance to have Wheat Pete answer your questions in-person, whether talking about his first-love crop, fall weed control or the nutrients in… Read More
Tight profit margins are leading many farms to hang on to equipment longer before trading it in. The major manufacturers have also slowed down production significantly, coinciding with the drop in demand for new iron. And all of this means there’s less late model machinery hitting the market. “It’s getting really hard to find a… Read More
Wet conditions at harvest inevitably result in a mess, as heavy combines and grain carts leave their mark in the soft soil. With above normal rainfall extending into harvest in parts of Western Canada, we’re seeing some deep ruts and serious compaction from harvest equipment. “That wheel traffic compaction can go as deep as three… Read More
Back home from the US Farm Progress Show in Iowa, Bern Tobin and Kelvin Heppner take over the Kickin’ Tires podcast for this episode to reflect on what they saw and heard at the massive farm equipment and technology trade show. With crowds exceeding 100,000 over three days, many companies use Farm Progress to launch… Read More
Harvest is moving along between rains, as we start to get an idea of the impact disease has had on the big crop in the West. Meanwhile, talks between Bayer and Monsanto continue…spraying drones, the U.S. election, Canadian farm debt numbers…and Lyndsey’s back! All that and more…here’s This Week on Real Ag for the week of… Read More
For those who closely follow the equipment industry, there was something unique about John Deere’s deal with sprayer-maker Hagie Manufacturing. The two companies announced a joint venture this past spring that saw Deere acquire a majority stake in the Iowa-based company known for its innovative front boom, high clearance sprayers. Unlike most of its other… Read More