Consumers want food that’s as cheap as possible. True, they want safe food, too, and all those other features such as wholesome, nutritious and environmentally sound food. But mainly, they want food cheap. The huge increase in grocery items at big box stores and discount outlets bears that out. Exceptions exist, particularly with the growing… Read More
Category: Western Canada
Every conference season, presentation after presentation reminds farmers of the cost of too-short crop rotations. Increased disease pressure, insect infestations and nutrient depletion of soil all weigh on yields in tight rotations. Agronomic decisions like these commonly play in to the decision on what to seed next on each field, but 2014 is shaping up… Read More
While the fundamentals seem to hint at conditions being right for the Canadian cow herd to begin an expansion phase, it’s not happening. Cull rates of about 10% would signal ranchers building their herds; 2013 numbers will end up somewhere about 15%, a number more synonymous with liquidation than expansion. According to Brian Perillat, senior… Read More
Farmers can look forward to a new LEMKEN compact-disc for the 2014 growing season, as the company rolls out the Rubin 12 compact-disc harrow for primary tillage applications. Designed to work at depths of 5 to 8 inches, the Rubin 12 delivers intensive, uniform mixing and crumbling in one pass – even in very heavy… Read More
ATB is celebrating its 75th anniversary and as a part of that they are sharing some very special memorable belt buckles. The commemorative limited edition buckles were handcrafted by Alberta native Troy Fisher. Each farmer or rancher was nominated by their regional relationship manager based on their contribution to the local community and agriculture; size,… Read More
With a nod to tradition, Cereals Canada has announced Winnipeg, Manitoba, as the chosen city to house the headquarters of the organization. “A great deal of thought and consideration went into making this decision,” says Greg Porozni, Cereals Canada chair, in a press release. “Through this process it became clear to us that Winnipeg will… Read More
Research out of the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI) suggests that radio frequency identification (RFID) tags inserted into an animal’s ear cold not only require more strength to install, they are also much weaker than those installed at room temperature. These findings will no doubt be a warm message on a cold day to producers… Read More
Though we have yet to see prairie flax acres meet the pre-2009/pre-CDC Triffid-incident era, the purple flowers are making a steady return to our landscape. With this return comes an increasing interest in the plants agronomics. Typically seen as a fairly low input crop, flax certainly still requires nutrition and Chris Holzapfel, research manager at… Read More
All of us have attended a seminar in the past that provides us with the key criteria to make your farm successful. In many cases these are quite broad and not very personalized. For some fun, lets narrow it down and focus on one question that allows only one solution. I present you with a… Read More
Competition to get you to a grocery store is higher than ever before. With a fierce marketplace and incredibly diverse set of consumer demands, grocers are working hard to get you to their store and make you a loyal customer. Retailers’ most common weapon in the battle for loyalty seems to be providing murky information… Read More
As we gear up for the busy farm meeting season, farmers can be sure to learn about a few new product releases from their favourite crop protection company. 2014 appears to be no different with many new options coming out for growers in the area of seed treatments. Earlier in 2013, I was at a… Read More
Consumers can expect to see a new, “original” label on shelves soon. Though General Mills is a long-time supporter of biotechnology, it has started manufacturing its Original Cheerios without genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Tom Forsythe, vice president of Global Communications for General Mills, claims on the General Mills blog, that the change was not brought about by… 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
If you have the money to afford a UAV, you have the time to understand the laws surrounding its use, and the responsibility to abide by them. Like it or not, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) appear to be gaining altitude in ag circles, as one of the newest technologies for precision agriculture. They are already being used… Read More
When people talk about farming in Russia, I imagine a very similar to set up to Western Canada, just bigger. If this episode of Rob Saik’s Agri-Treks is any indication, I’m both right and very wrong. See more: Tour Kenya, see where tequila comes from and more! In this latest installment chronicling some of the… Read More