It seems whenever a new disease or pest rears its head, the old wives tales and myths follow closely on its heels. Take, for example, the advent of clubroot being found in Alberta about 10 years ago. Never fear, said many in the more eastern parts of the prairies, our high pH western Canadian soils… Read More
Tag: Lyndsey Smith
Can you spot a chemically damaged wheat seedling from a healthy one? Unlike some other damage or infection, chemically damaged cereal seedlings don’t always look that bad off in the very early stages. In fact, seedlings can even put out a mostly healthy shoot, but upon further investigation the trained eye will notice that the… Read More
I’m likely one of the few women who are positively giddy for November. Because November is Movember and I’m a huge fan of fantastic iterations of facial hair. The whole awareness campaign behind Movember is just icing on the cake (moustache?). I’ve encouraged the boy half of RealAgriculture.com to participate, but he hasn’t agreed. Could… Read More
Farmers who banked on moving crop in September are running into road blocks left and right, even on the eve of November. A bumper crop across most crop kinds in all three Prairie Provinces is taxing Western Canada’s railway service and elevators are at or near capacity, even with huge piles of grain being stored… Read More
Sometimes, as a writer, when you get weary of coming up with new ideas, you simply take an older, successful idea and recycle it. Two examples of this: tabloids running a “Celebrity Pregnancy Shocker” piece and W5 running a “factory farming animal abuse” story filmed entirely by undercover animal activists. And so this last week,… Read More
Whenever the holiday falls on a Monday, the rest of the week feels a little off. Case in point, I thought Thursday was Friday even though it was a short week and started this “last day of the work week” column a day early. What gives? Anywho, as the RealAgriculture team struggled into their post-turkey… Read More
It’s time once again for the least serious 10 minutes in ag news! And this time the RealAgriculture production team has gone above and beyond the call of duty and put together a truly entertaining package of highlights from Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show. In this mostly-not-serious edition of Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down, Shaun Haney and… Read More
Brennan Turner recently asked farmers if they’d prefer extra bushels but lower prices, or sky high prices but a poor crop. Not surprisingly, farmers would prefer inventory, likely in part because Canadian farmers are quite comfortable with storing grain. Of course, the yields and volumes coming off fields this fall has left many farmers without… Read More
Prices are firm, feed costs are looking softer and there’s plenty of green grass still late in the year. Let’s call it a good place to be before the moving and shaking of the fall calf run. As Anne Wasko, of Gateway Livestock, says in this edition of the Beef Market Update, fat cattle prices… Read More
It’s officially back to the grind for the RealAg team, which means Shaun Haney and Lyndsey Smith sat down for another edition of the Most Serious 10 to 15 Minutes in Ag News — Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down. In this episode, Shaun and Lyndsey discuss how junk food is still junk food, even if it’s… Read More
Want to bury news? Send out your press release late on a Friday afternoon. You get bonus points if it’s the Friday before a long weekend, and the spokesperson most versed in the subject takes the next week as holidays (I call that the trifecta of bad news sharing). So, when I saw the Manitoba… Read More
Forbes recently published an article asking the (rehtorical, I assume) question, “Is Organic Agriculture Affluent Narcissim?” My answer? Of course it is. I thought we all knew that. I find myself in an interesting position these days. I consider myself rather neutral — I’m happy we’re all free to choose what we put in our… Read More
Its time again for another edition of RealAgriculture.com’s Thumbs Up Thumbs Down. This week Shaun and Lyndsey discuss the sabotage of Monsanto, the pesticide ban in Manitoba, should the Calgary Stampede have gone on, why don’t farmers ask questions at conferences, why don’t some people wash their hands after they pee, complaining about not being… Read More
It was quite a week in Regina — flash floods, giant equipment roll outs and Saskatchewan field editor Debra Murphy’s first chance at covering a farm show. No farm show that RealAgriculture.com attends would be quite complete without a signature Thumbs up, Thumbs down piece, and so, without further ado, I give you the Day… Read More
For food product businesses, marketing and distribution is a major cost and time commitment, but it’s a necessary element of success. For small-scale or start-up businesses, letting the world know what you have to offer can be especially difficult. Sask Made Marketplace is working to help bridge the gap between consumers and small-scale Saskatchewan-based food… Read More