Imposter syndrome is a feeling many are familiar with whether they define it as such or not. Imposter syndrome happens when we doubt our own knowledge or skills, and these doubts manifest a fear of being exposed as an imposter or fraud. When challenged, it is often not as simple as just admitting you don’t… Read More
Category: Poll
Not everyone is a numbers person, but most who run a business know the value of crunching income and expenses well ahead of the final tallies. Budgets can take many forms, from a scribbled down input/output scenario, to templates and spreadsheets, or a completely invisible version that lives only in someone’s head. There are pros… Read More
There are fewer farmers every year in Canada. That’s just reality. The impacts of a shrinking demographic are complex and far-reaching, but also sometimes right in front of us — like now, during the Annual General Meeting season of producer groups. The same farmer attending four different meetings, for example, doesn’t necessarily make the most sense,… Read More
Let’s set aside for a moment the questionable taste of farm show and conference coffee or why the mugs are the size of thimbles, and instead let’s celebrate the return to the Learning Season. While the tradeshow season begins in the fall, the learning conferences kick off the first week of January and don’t relent… Read More
Prior to November of this year, plenty of Western Canadian farmers would have listed flea beetles as one of the major insect pests of canola. Then, just last week, distributors of the insecticide active lambda-cyhalothrin (sold as Matador and Silencer) announced they were pulling the product out of retail and likely not returning it for… Read More
Looking at our calendars for the next few weeks and into the first quarter of 2023 makes it feel like we are back to pre-pandemic levels of travel. While our travel schedules here at RealAgriculture may have gone back to the same as “before,” how winter conferences are conducted has evolved. One of the examples… Read More
Traditions evolve over time — sometimes a significantly difficult time spurs an increased focus on gratitude, or a record-setting sale price or yield requires a big celebration. When harvest wraps up, whether it’s the last acre through the combine or the last calf sold, it’s important to step back, reflect, and indulge just a little… Read More
Depending on the crop type, new varieties or hybrids might show up on a farm’s acres nearly annually or once a decade. There’s just so much riding on genetics, that it takes quite a bit for a new name or number to earn acres. Whether it’s the quick turnover of corn and canola offerings, or… Read More
We all know how many different facets of the agriculture industry there are. Whether it be cropping, livestock, retail, communications, education, or mechanics…the list goes on and on. When it comes to our careers, we all have to make choices, and sometimes we wonder about the other ones out there. So this week, on the… Read More
Pricing and sourcing nitrogen and other fertilizer for the 2022 season was difficult and expensive. While many assumed the events and situations that caused much of the problem — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, pandemic-affected ports, etc. — would have subsided by now, the opposite seems more likely. With a natural gas crisis in the EU… Read More
With the arrival of autumn officially this week, and the first report cards rolling in on the 2022 growing season (that’s yield x price, by the way), it’s time to talk about first thoughts on winners and losers of acres for ’23. While the big crops — wheat and canola in the west and corn… Read More
How do you feel about phone surveys? If you answered a resounding, “I love them!” you’d be in the clear minority of farmers. Farmers have increasingly called for a reduction or even an end to Statistics Canada’s planting and production phone surveys. In response, StatsCan has, over time, been phasing in more remote sensing and… Read More
If you’ve had a miscommunication over grams per acre, or bushels instead of tonnes, or just how far 20 paces is, you might want to weigh in on our latest poll. Around the RealAgriculture water cooler, we’ve laughed and grumbled about how confusing certain measurements can be, especially when some are obscure, or there’s inconsistency… Read More
Joey Votto broke the record for Major League Baseball games played by a Canadian this past week. The Cincinnati Reds first baseman, who grew up in Toronto, Ont., played his 1,989th game, breaking the mark held by Hall of Famer Larry Walker of Maple Ridge, B.C. Votto was also mic’d up and in the spotlight… Read More
Winter wheat harvest is nearly complete across Ontario, and Western Canada is nudging ever closer to swath timing and the start of harvest. For many, setting up the harvest crew is a challenge. Finding the right people or sometimes just enough people can be really difficult, so we want to know — where are you… Read More