Ontario’s 2016 budget made many headlines last week – from free university tuition for low income families to a 4.3 cent climate-change-fighting gas tax, and even a lower-than-expected deficit. But what does it all mean for agriculture, farmers and rural Ontario? With some help from our RealAgriculture twitter followers, we peppered Ontario Agriculture, Food and… Read More
Tag: Food And Rural Affairs
Wondering how to get product into dense canopies? Well, you just have to boost up spray pressure, right? No way! The dynamic duo of Sprayers101.com — Tom Wolf, of AgriMetrix, and Jason Deveau, of OMAFRA — join us to bring you the second episode of a very special series of Spray Tips videos. An educational series like you’ve never… Read More
We’re moving into prime white mould season — mid-summer and into August. While conditions were very favourable for disease development through June (wet and cool), mid-to-late July’s heat and dry conditions could have slowed progress of the disease. While you won’t be able to gauge infection levels in soybeans without scouting (hint: go do that… Read More
The soil beneath our feet is teeming with organisms, each with an incredibly important role in the pedosphere. Among the organisms is a group commonly referred to as earthworms (from the phylum Annelida). (video on earthworm scouting is at the end of this post) Invaders Though a few species are said to remain from the last… Read More
Ontario’s 2015 Agri-Food Trade Mission to China (happening this week) is yielding a new business agreement for one of the province’s most iconic edible exports, maple syrup and maple products, says the government of Ontario. Agriculture minister Jeff Leal and minister of international trade Michael Chan recently met with representatives from Ontario’s Futurevic Global Sourcing… Read More
Sometimes it’s the little things that go unnoticed that actually have a big impact. Who hasn’t been waylaid by one tiny little part that breaks or goes missing? Big-picture considerations are important too, but the devil, as they say, is in the details. When it comes to spraying, details can easily be overlooked. When’s the… Read More
Peter Johnson will be the first to tell you he’s not retiring — he’s just retiring from his role as cereal specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. So while we won’t be completely rid of Wheat Pete, as he’s known, his departure from the ministry still deserves a send-off befitting… Read More
Want to do a health check up on your topsoil, but not a soil expert? Easy! Get digging in the fence row or nearby woodlot for a good gauge on how different the fields are from what they were before being farmed. Anne Verhallen, soil management specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and… Read More
A few weeks ago, the Grain Farmers of Ontario encouraged farmers to boycott the Ontario government’s public consultation process concerning new regulations governing access and use of neonicotinoid seed treatments on corn and soybean seed. At the time, GFO stated that there was little to be gained at the public meeting, and that GFO and… Read More
Two webex meetings and two in-person public consultation meetings took place in Ontario this week. At issue is the proposed increased regulation of neonicotinoid seed treatments for corn and soybean crops. Real Agriculture’s Bernard Tobin attended the London meeting on Tuesday (you can hear a recap of the event here), and spoke with Steve Klose,… Read More