After a punishing drought through central and eastern Ontario last year, some hay and pasture fields are entering 2026 under significant stress. For producers looking to give those forage stands a head start this spring, there are practical, early-season strategies that can make a difference, starting with frost seeding. In this interview with RealAgriculture’s Lyndsey... Read More
Category: Crop Production
Attendance at the Ontario Certified Crop Advisor Association (CCA) annual meeting this week topped 250 CCAs and industry representatives — that's a crowd executive director Susan Fitzgerald hasn't seen since pre-COVID. Fitzgerald says a large turnout for an organization with total membership of 650 signals a resurgence in in-person engagement this winter. “It’s a good... Read More
Farmers could be forgiven if it felt like Groundhog Day as market experts unpacked the state of 2026 global grain markets at the SouthWest Agricultural Conference. Ben Buckner, chief grains analyst with AgResource Company, notes that market conditions really haven't changed since his last visit to the conference a year ago. In this market report,... Read More
Wheat Pete is back in the pulpit this week with passionate calls for better manure stewardship, more diverse crop rotations, and a wary eye on weed resistance. He shares standout moments from Ontario’s winter ag conferences and dives into listener questions on phosphorus placement, product flops, and winter wheat survival. Have a question you’d like... Read More
Severe, prolonged dry conditions in southwest Saskatchewan have many growers rethinking how they manage fertility to protect yield potential and reduce economic risk. Near Hazlet, Sask., Evan Dewar of Dewar Family Farms has spent the last eight years experimenting with soil health and more specifically deep banding — placing a multi-nutrient blend as deep as... Read More
Dust entering an engine’s air intake can quickly build up in filters, requiring operators to stop frequently to blow them out or clean them. Depending on how dry conditions are, that can mean servicing filters every day, every other day, or once a week, adding time spent on maintenance during field operations. At Agri-Trade in... Read More
The rate at which grain farming costs have escalated over the last five years is more than double Canada’s overall inflation rate, according to analysis looking at Manitoba farmers' costs. Both the Bank of Canada's inflation calculator and Statistics Canada's Consumer Price Index gauge inflation from 2020 to 2025 at around 20 per cent. However,... Read More
It’s not often Chicago Bears fans and grain market bears get to celebrate the same week — but here we are. As Ted Seifried of Zaner Ag Hedge puts it, “Bears are on a roll in lots of different facets,” following Monday's USDA report packed with downside surprises for corn, soybeans, and wheat. Seifried joined... Read More
On this episode of The Agronomists, host Lyndsey Smith is joined by Dr. Yvonne Lawley of the University of Manitoba, Callum Morrison of Manitoba Agriculture, and Marty Vermey of the Grain Farmers of Ontario, to discuss a large-scale cover crop survey currently underway, five years after the first. What have we learned? How have the... Read More
Prime Minister Mark Carney is headed to China this week with a contingent of Canada's political leadership, including Minister of Agriculture Heath MacDonald, Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand, Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson, Industry Minister Melanie Joly, and International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu. It's the largest cabinet delegation that has accompanied Carney on an... Read More