Harvest is the time where farmers look at the forecast every minute of the day. Is there an occupation more dependent on the weather? In the first episode of our new feature RealWeatherWatch, we take aim at the weather heading into the 2011 soybean harvest. The start of this planting season was rough to say… Read More
Category: Weather
Can agriculture help to mitigate the effects of climate change while protecting biodiversity and maintaining profitability? That is what Dr Pam Berry refers to as the triple win scenario. Dr Berry is with the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University in England. She realizes that these opportunities are rare, but she also notes that it… Read More
It’s been a tough year for farmers here in Ontario. As a sopping wet spring lead its way into a dry, hot summer, things aren’t looking overly optimistic for the upcoming harvest. Corn and soybean fields across the province are hugely variable in terms of development and stand but where we find variability we also… Read More
Test weights on wheat are down below average in parts of Ontario. Compared to this time last year, yields by test weight alone are down by as much as 10% in areas. There are a couple of reasons behind this. The first involves under-filled kernels from plants surrounding dead zones in the field being… Read More
When it comes to disease problems in wheat, the conditions have been pretty favourable across most of the prairies. With the exception of the past week or so, temperatures have been below average and moisture has been above average across the west. Those factors elevate the risk of fungal disease, making scouting and control extremely… Read More
The start of the 2011 growing season was challenging to say the least. Wet weather and unseasonably cool conditions in the majority of the west had producers stressed out and wondering if they would get a crop in at all. That was the case in fact in large areas of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Fast forward… Read More
When you consider the temperatures across the prairies even a month ago, it’s hard to believe we’d be here now talking about the effects of high temperature on canola. That’s the nature of life on the prairies though. While prolonged periods of high heat may not be in the cards for most of the prairies,… Read More
Between the internet, the radio the t.v., the newspaper your phone or your neighbour, there are a host of options when it comes to getting your local weather forecast. When you’re farming however, you need a degree of accuracy on a local level that most times can only be provided by a drive to the… Read More
Climate change is one of those things that has forced scientists to speculate, to project and to anticipate scenarios in an attempt to help humanity deal with potential problems on the horizon. Some of those potential problems were discussed at the Climate Change Symposium in Guelph, Ontario. One area discussed was that of climate change’s… Read More
Atmospheric CO2 has been on the rise since the 1960s. Levels have increased roughly 22% according to some scientists. That increase can be seen as favourable to plants in general, but according to some researchers, it may not be as broad as that. Some research states that the increased levels of atmospheric CO2 may actually… Read More
Last week RealAgriculture.com took a went on a bit of a road trip. We were happy to be part of the Western Farm Progress Show in Regina, Saskatchewan. During that time we got to see a lot of cool new products and talk to a lot of interesting people. One of our favourite things to… Read More
There have been a lot of numbers bounced around when it comes to total unseeded acres across the prairies. If you were to talk to five different people, you’d probably get five different numbers. The CWB estimates somewhere between 4 to 6 million acres have gone unseeded across the west. Those numbers tend to have… Read More
In case you were not paying attention, we’ve done a lot of stories over the course of the spring about wet weather, wet conditions, flooding etc. To be fair, it has been big news. Those conditions have taken a real economic and emotional toll on all those affected. That being said, when those events occur,… Read More
Canadian Farmers aren’t the only ones dealing with a challenging crop season this year. The U.S. midwest is dealing with a devastating tornado season as well as extremely wet conditions and flooding. Contrast that with the hot, dry drought conditions in places like Texas that have spawned wildfires and eliminated any hopes of planting a… Read More
Over the past few years, rural Alberta has seen some expansion. Some are people from other provinces or abroad who found work here, some are children of farmers going into business for themselves, and some just want out of the city. Many of those people dream about a quiet country life, away from the noise… Read More