The Liberal government's minimum wage hike will cost Ontario fruit and vegetable growers $297 million over the next two years. The impact on the industry was calculated by professional consultants and presented to all levels of the provincial government, but Premier Kathleen Wynne, Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) and senior bureaucrats chose not to listen,... Read More
Category: Eastern Canada
Ontario’s veterinary community is responding to the rise in goat and sheep production with new education and research initiatives. Jeff Wichtel, dean of the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC), says since September, his school’s curriculum has expanded teaching to include more information on small ruminants, and is conducting several new research projects to build up health... Read More
Almost half of Ontario's certified crop advisors packed a London, ON hotel conference room this week for their organization's annual meeting and conference. Ontario Certified Crop Advisor (CCA) Association chair Ken Currah says meeting attendance is a strong indication of grower demand for agronomic services and the expertise that CCAs bring to the farm. He... Read More
December ended with very cold weather across Canada, but overall Canadian tractor and combine sales numbers reported by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) were hot, compared to 2016. The December 2017 the Association of Equipment Manufacturers Canadian Flash Report shows 2WD farm tractors up 15.1%, 4WD farm tractors up 24.5% and self propelled combines... Read More
The USDA will release one of its most anticipated reports on Friday — the January World Agricultural Supply/Demand Estimates or WASDE. Some analysts have referred to it as the Super Bowl of USDA reports. As in sports, the pregame discussions and speculation can be almost as much fun as analyzing the score(s) after the fact.... Read More
Do your corn fields yield less than 170 bu/ac? If so, you have to be careful when removing corn residue from those fields because you could be depleting the field's soil organic matter. That was the message USDA research agronomist Shannon Osbourne shared with those attending the recent Southwest Agricultural Conference at the University of…Read More
Peter Johnson is back with another episode in our ‘Real’ Wheat Farmers series. This time our RealAgriculture's resident agronomist is gleaning management tips from Hugh Dietrich who farms with his family at Lucan, Ontario. Dietrich's advice for Johnson starts with the need to put phosphorus down with wheat in the fall. Tile drainage is also…Read More
Precision agriculture provides clear evidence of the impact of yield variability. But often farmers find themselves mired in a swamp of data as they work to create management zones and prescriptions to maximize yield across a field. University of Guelph's Clarence Swanton certainly sees the opportunity for farmers to intensify management and increase yield but... Read More
The national association that represents Canadian agricultural retailers has hired a new executive director. Mitch Rezansoff has taken on the lead post with the Canadian Association of Agri-Retailers following Delaney Ross Burtnack's departure for the Manitoba Canola Growers Association last summer. Rezansoff was most recently the Integrated Solutions Manager at Enns Brothers — a John... Read More
Soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is the leading cause of yield loss for the oilseed crop across North America. And unless a new source of resistance is found to fend off the pest, growers can expect to see SCN gobble up an increasing percentage of their yield in the years ahead. That was the message delivered…Read More