If you're looking to build soil nutrient levels in pasture, do you order fertilizer or do you buy sheep? If you're Mike Swidersky and family, you buy sheep as a complement to raising cattle. How does it work? You run the sheep after the cattle (they utilize pasture differently and aren't susceptible to the other... Read More
Category: Crops
Let's start this week's Word on a super positive note — Peter Johnson is a grandpa for the sixth time! Host Johnson takes that wonderful piece of news as inspiration for this week's Wheat Pete's Word and tries to keep it upbeat and positive (meaning, yes, he talks corn, but mostly not, OK?) From winter... Read More
Farmers Edge and Global Ag Risk Solutions (Global Ag) have announced a "strategic alignment" that will see the companies offer a unique option for crop insurance. Mutual customers of Farmers Edge and Global Ag, in both Canada and the U.S., will have access to new options and services, including customized insurance products and Farmers Edge... Read More
The Spray Guys are back with a Canadian culture mash up that sees them reprise the roles of Bob and Doug McKenzie, everybody's favourite beer drinking duo. In this episode of Exploding Spray Myths, our two hosers, played by Jason Deveau and Tom Wolf, somehow manage to jerry-rig a satellite hot stove lounge where they... Read More
By Peter Johnson, RealAgriculture agronomist The DON quick test is driving everybody nuts. Farmers are getting results of 12 ppm at this elevator, but the same load tests 5 ppm at another elevator. Then, you send a load to an end user, get rejected the first time at 10 ppm, get right back in line... Read More
There was a time that farming was not that mysterious a process. Most farming practices were the same from generation to generation, and the majority of people were involved in agriculture in some way themselves. That has all changed now, and some in the industry feel there is now a need to 'demystify' what agriculture... Read More
How can growers adjust their combines to reduce vomitoxin levels when harvesting the 2018 crop? RealAgriculture agronomist Peter Johnson has some answers. In this episode of Real Agriculture's Corn School, Johnson visits with custom combine operator David Killins, of Killins Custom work, at Dorchester, Ontario. Johnson acknowledges that while cleaning corn does help, it's not... Read More
Grain markets were able to find gains as they entered the first few days of November, mainly driven by some rumour-driven optimism around the trade war between the U.S. and China ending sometime soon. After posting a monthly low to end October, soybean prices jumped about 4% in a few minutes on Thursday after a... Read More
Hemp has often been lumped in with its rather contentious relation, cannabis. While related, the two crops are very different, but the recent legalization of cannabis in Canada is also good news for the hemp industry. Shaun Haney, host of RealAg Radio, recently had a chance to talk with Ted Haney, executive director of the... Read More
By Peter Johnson, RealAgriculture agronomist It has been one TOUGH harvest. Constant showers, have led to very wet condition, and now record levels of deoxynivalenol (DON, produced by gibberella) in the corn crop has stress running high in the countryside. Coffee shop rumours abound. The urgent questions though, are: Do I harvest this corn at... Read More