Category: Crop Production

Canada's hemp industry is pushing towards a whole new future, now that regulatory changes have opened up the opportunity to extract more value from the crop. Ted Haney, executive director of the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance, says that the industry was built on one revenue stream, but its long-term viability depends on the ability to... Read More

Announced changes to how Ontario carrot and tomato growers and processors negotiate price are being blasted by the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers (OPVG). Provincial Agriculture Minister, Ernie Hardeman recently announced that the tomato industry will move to a direct marketing system: Every producer will have a written "associated producer agreement" with their processor for a... Read More

Spring 2019 will be remembered by Ontario soybean growers as one of the toughest they've ever tackled. Unprecedented rainfall delayed planting, with the majority of soybeans being planted in June, and some acres having to wait until July. For some growers, those early rains were followed by a dry summer and then the rain and... Read More

Federal ministers have received their marching orders from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the 43rd Parliament. For minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Marie-Claude Bibeau, those orders include several initiatives focused on trade, economic development, tax treatment of farm succession, food waste, and water quality. The mandate letter lays out what Trudeau's government prioritizes... Read More

Terry Betker has worked with farmers to establish peer groups for more than a decade. Traditionally, farmers engage with their peers to share management ideas in informal settings — everywhere from industry meetings to the local coffee shop — but formal peer groups are not common in Canadian agriculture, says Betker, president of Winnipeg-based Backswath... Read More

Here we are, just a few weeks from the holidays and the end of the calendar year, and many farmers are using every last bit of daylight to get the crop harvested and dried, if they can. When you're pushing long hours in less than ideal conditions, sometimes safety gets thrown out the window, and... Read More

There are several downgrading factors in the pulse crop that farmers have no control over — snow or rain at harvest that causes sprouting and bleaching being perhaps the most common. Other factors, however, such as dirt tag, staining, and cracks can be managed to some degree through harvest management and gentle handling. For this... Read More

The western Canadian canola market is an attractive one with about 20 million acres of seed put in the ground each year. But while the acres are plentiful, it's still a very competitive market. Nuseed, a division of Nufarm, wagers that its approach is the right one in bringing a new commercial commodity canola business... Read More

Are we feeding our soybeans enough? There are plenty of opinions but no definitive answers, says Veritas Farm Management manager Aaron Breimer. The challenge is determining which nutrients are limiting yield, something that can vary from field to field and even across individual fields. On this episode of RealAgriculture's Soybean School, Breimer dives into the... Read More

Syngenta Canada is going where the growth is. That growth potential is solidly in soybeans and corn, says the company's head of seeds, and Syngenta's research and product selection will reflect a rebuilding of market share in corn, and a continued presence in both non-GMO and GMO soybeans. Dan Wright, is head of seeds for... Read More