Contrary to what some headlines and marketing campaigns would lead us to believe, honey bee numbers in Canada are at record highs and trending higher. At the end of 2016, there were a record 750 thousand colonies in the country, according to Statistics Canada. “The state of the bee industry is quite strong right now,”… Read More

With a smartphone in their pocket, every farmer, farm employee, or agronomist is now also a photographer.The ability to share pictures from the field has dramatically improved how farmers and agronomists communicate and diagnose issues.However, the information gleaned from a cellphone photo can only be as good as the original picture. A poor photo won’t tell you anything,… Read More

Although canola’s calcium requirements are relatively high (about double the level of sulphur and phosphorous, according to the Canola Council of Canada), deficiencies are rarely seen in western Canada.When deficiencies do occur, it is often as a result of highly saturated soils, which do not allow the plant to take up adequate nutrients.That was the… Read More

“Neonicotinoids,” “Colony Collapse Disorder,” “Varroa,” “Nosema”… Defining those colloquialisms (and others) was just one of the goals the Canola Council of Canada’s Gregory Sekulic had in mind when he presented “Buzzwords about Bees” at the Farming Smarter Conference in Medicine Hat. Sekulic wanted to clear the air on jargon that so often exacerbates misunderstanding“We really lose sight… Read More