Alberta farmers who pay a levy to the Alberta Barley Commission or the Alberta Wheat Commission will have the opportunity to vote on amalgamating the two organizations in October. The Alberta Agricultural Products Marketing Council, working with third-party advisor MNP and the two commissions, will be administering two online plebiscites: one for barley growers, and... Read More
Category: Ag Policy
In the food-grade soybean business, seed companies must maintain a sharp focus on end-user requirements and what growers need to do to meet those market demands. For Sevita International general manager Sandy Hart, the company's success rests on its ability to breed soybean genetics that create value for end-users through food qualities that include protein,... Read More
This column was submitted to RealAgriculture by Cam Dahl, of the Manitoba Pork Council. What is a farmer’s relationship with environmental and animal welfare certification programs? Would it be right to say that it’s complicated? On one hand, farmers feel targeted by those in the activist community who reject the realities of modern agriculture. No... Read More
As the federal government has announced it's desire for a 30 per cent reduction in fertilizer emissions, specifically from nitrogen, the name of the game now is, how? For this Wheat School episode, Dr. Sheri Strydhorst, agronomy research specialist with the Alberta Wheat and Barley Commission, talks about the nitrogen cycle and takes a scientific... Read More
The Canadian Beef Industry Conference was held at Penticton, B.C., this week, reconnecting the beef industry in-person after several years. One of the key members in attendance was Anne Wasko, who is wrapping up her four-year tenure as chair of the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB). RealAgriculture's Kara Oosterhuis was at the conference and... Read More
Global need, market prices, and implications from the pandemic have all demonstrated the benefits of bolstering local agriculture infrastructure, something that Alberta NDP ag critic, Heather Sweet, says the province needs to play catch up on. When comparing the Prairie Provinces, Alberta is showing far less traction with breaking ground on new value-added processing than... Read More
The On Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) is a federal program being administered by 12 organizations across Canada. In Ontario, the funding for nitrogen management, cover cropping, and rotational grazing is largely being administered by the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA). EcoCert is also administering a portion of funds for organic growers. Margaret... Read More
The details of how the Canadian government plans to reach its 30 per cent nitrogen fertilizer emission reduction target are still not clear, but the federal agriculture minister says the government has "no intention of going in a regulatory direction." Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau also says farm practices that reduce emissions, but are not currently... Read More
A steam-sprayer company is currently conducting trials researching the efficacy of steam-spraying to new depths, which so far, has produced promising results. The X-Steam-inator is a spraying system that utilizes steam to kill weeds and thanks to research being done in Yuma, Arizona, could produce a sizeable increase in production. Ron Gleim, founder and CEO... Read More
The Canadian government's plan to reduce emissions from nitrogen fertilizer has gained widespread attention over the last few weeks, with plenty of unanswered questions and uncertainty surrounding the proposal. Originally announced in late 2020, the plan to reduce nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from synthetic fertilizer by 30 per cent in 2030 relative to a 2020... Read More