Most seasoned canola growers know a staggering amount of canola seed never becomes a viable plant, and it’s not due to disease or poor germ. An unfortunate side effect of running an air drill is, well, air, or rather the damage that air can do to tiny canola seed as it pushes it through the… Read More
Category: United States
Higher commodity prices continue to benefit the financial returns of the agri-business industry. When farmers have strong free cash flow, input and machinery dealers have always benefited. Like any other industry, when farmers have no money the spending clamp gets put on pretty tight. You don’t have to look any further than the tractor sales… Read More
As you drive down the highway and see all the planters and seeders getting pulled through the fields you see many different brands of tractors. In some cases its the same tractor a certain farm has had for 20 years while other farms are constantly trading for new models. The decision making of which tractor… Read More
Elevators and ag-retail sites in several prairie towns will see new colours flying soon. As of today Richardson International Limited will take over certain of Viterra’s elevators, ag-retail sites, oat milling properties and Viterra’s share of 21st Century Grain Processing in the United States, plus a terminal at Thunder Bay, Ontario. Viterra released this… Read More
The start of planting in 2013 has been very slow due to cool and, in some cases, wet inclement weather. Nothing tells a story like pictures, so here is a selection of some of the pictures from the past week in #plant13 (from Twitter) from across the United States. See this weeks Canadian pictures of… Read More
Last week it was reported that family-owned MacDon Industries Ltd is being put up for auction. As one the world’s largest manufacturer of windrowers, Reuters reported that the price tag could be for over one billion dollars. At this point no reasons for the sale have been released but rumors of the potential interested buyers is purely… Read More
Recently I have seen several different press releases on competitive companies deciding to share corn traits. Most farmers look at these kinds of announcements and just flip the page to the next article without a second look. Really you should take that second look and think about the impact on your farm in the future…. Read More
What’s your technology mix? Phone and a laptop, phone, tablet and a laptop, or desktop, phone and a tablet? Or something else entirely? It’s an expensive trial, this getting the right mix of useful gadgets, so certified AgNerds Shaun Haney and Peter Gredig decided to tackle the question. Inspired by Shaun’s adoption of the lamely-named… Read More
How do you view milk in your household? Do you lump it together with other beverages like juice, soda, coffee, tea? When do you drink it? Why do you drink it? What informs those decisions in your home? That’s a relatively small set of questions, but important ones as the dairy industry looks at how… Read More
Don’t let the rather diminutive size of the Lely Vector TMR fool you. This rather compact unit is designed to deliver frequent, precise dairy rations tirelessly for herds of between 220 and 300 cows, depending on the ration mix. The Vector unit works on its own as a robotic system completed by the Lely feed… Read More
It’s been a rough year for many farmers in the U.S., as drought stole yields, entire crops and whole pastures. A return to more normal precipitation patterns over the winter helped in many areas, however, this spring’s cold and, yes, even snowy April weather has put the brakes on the spring corn planting season and… Read More
The drought of 2012 is still fresh in the mind of many American farmers. As many get closer to the beginning of plant 2013, everyone has their fingers crossed that another drought does not wreak havoc on this year’s corn and soybean crop. Recent cool wet weather (in some cases snow) has pushed back planting,… Read More
This week Agrium shareholders elected its slate of directors hopefully putting to rest a brutal distracting 10 month proxy battle with corporation predator JANA Partners LLC. This has been a long slug fest that quickly got personal as JANA became more and more aggressive in its quest to break up Agrium to attempt to maximize… Read More
Timing a spring tillage operation can be particularly challenging when the weather decides to be rather uncooperative for a timely planting season. And while cool or wet conditions can have you stressed out about the need to get on the field, heading out too soon on wet soil can have season-long negative effects. As Jim… Read More
If you cannot seee the above embedded audio player, Click Here This morning I talked to Martin Unrau, President of the Canadian Cattlemans Association about his recent trip to Washington, DC to lobby for the repeal of the US mandatory Country of Origin Labelling (COOL) legislation. As Martin Unrau mentions in the interview, groups like the… Read More