The demand side of the Ontario corn balance sheet is poised to grow with the provincial government proposing to double its ethanol mandate for gasoline from five percent to 10 percent by 2020. "We currently have the five percent mandate in place and it takes at least about a third of the corn production in... Read More
Category: Eastern Canada
Before we begin to explain how blockchain may be a game changer for agricultural marketing let's answer that question that is likely at the top of your mind. "What the the heck is blockchain?" According to the Harvard Business Review, it is "an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and... Read More
Can rolling soybeans pump up your yields? If you get the timing right it looks like there's a two bu/ac payoff, according to research conducted this summer by OMAFRA soybean specialist Horst Bohner. In this edition of RealAgriculture Soybean School. Bohner explains that growers traditionally get a 0.5 bu/ac return on rolling due to better…Read More
Are you planning to build a new farm workshop? How will you power and heat it? Do you want a crane? In episode 3 of Real Dream Workshops, Peter Johnson visits his neighbour Otto Bloemen at Lucan, Ontario-based OJB Industries. Bloeman tells Johnson how he set out to build a cost-effective wood-frame building with high... Read More
It's not official, but it looks like Ontario's 2017 soybean yield will come in at around 43 bushels per acre. That's down from the 46-bushel five-year average, but considering the challenges Mother Nature threw at the crop during the past growing year, OMAFRA soybean specialist Horst Bohner will take it. In this edition of RealAgriculture…Read More
Both Canada and the United States released their export numbers for the month of October this week and there are some interesting takeaways. Fresh off last week's third quarter GDP numbers that were dragged down by weak exports, the Statistics Canada trade data pushlished on Tuesday showed rebounding exports. Canada's trade deficit shrank to a... Read More
Mechanically harvesting, drying and handling grain corn can compromise quality and take a bite out of a grower's bottom line. Earlier this fall, OMAFRA crop systems and environment engineer James Dyck worked with Dietrich Farms of Lucan, Ontario to study mechanical breakage – the impact it has on dockage and what growers can do to…Read More
All livestock producers have been urged to cut unnecessary antibiotic use, to try to prevent resistant bacteria from developing in their herds and flocks. But on the farm, the question is where, and how? Consider dairy calves, for example. More than half of the deaths of dairy calves are from diarrhea. Producers often treat that... Read More
In the first half of 2017, I repeatedly supported the Trudeau government on their trade strategy. They seemed to be focused on diversifying Canadian trade away from the U.S., altering the negotiation strategy based on the opponent, and establishing strong starts in Asia where the future global GDP growth will transpire. I have changed my... Read More
The Southwest Agricultural Conference (SWAC) will mark its 25th anniversary on January 3rd, when the two-day conference unofficially kicks off Ontario’s winter farm meeting season. In Part Two of our video series looking back at a quarter century of SWAC, we hear from a host of conference organizers and participants who share their favourite memories... Read More