If a corn plant emerges one, two or three days after its neighbour, will it yield less? Real Agriculture resident agronomist Peter Johnson is determined to find out. At the SouthWest Ag Conference last January, National Corn Growers Association yield contest champion Randy Dowdy challenged growers to plant a flag test on their farm to…Read More
Category: Eastern Canada
The private real estate company that co-owns the Winnipeg Jets has exercised an option to invest another $3.2 million in precision ag business Farmers Edge. Toronto-based Osmington Inc., which is owned and controlled by David Thomson, chair of Thomson Reuters, has been investing in farmland for the last four years and first invested in Farmers... Read More
Monsanto's board of directors has unanimously decided that Bayer's US$62 billion cash offer to purchase the company is "incomplete and financially inadequate." “We believe in the substantial benefits an integrated strategy could provide to growers and broader society, and we have long respected Bayer’s business,” said Hugh Grant, Monsanto Chairman and CEO, in a statement... Read More
Similar to how auto-steer has allowed farmers to focus on other tasks rather than steering while crawling up or down a field, a new California company is testing self-driving semis to make trucking safer and allow drivers to do something else between exits on the interstate. Otto, which announced its existence last week, was founded…Read More
Imagine finding a plate-sized tick on your person. That's the rather disturbing — and epic — analogy Ontario's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs gives to offer a visual understanding of the size of a varroa mite compared to its host, the beloved bee. Though not a tick, Varroa destructor are of the class... Read More
There are many factors that will make a wheat crop more likely to lodge — seeding rate, fertility, moisture levels, variety and so on, but when it comes to understanding lodging risk during the growing season, watch nighttime temperatures, says RealAgriculture agronomist Peter Johnson. "At nighttime, what does wheat do? All it does is respire,"…Read More
It was slow and steady, but farmers have won the race to get the 2016 Ontario corn crop in the ground. It’s been a cool spring that’s required lots of patience, says Pride Seeds Market Agronomist Ken Currah. On this episode of Real Agriculture Corn School, Currah looks back at spring planting conditions and discusses…Read More
Challenging times in the machinery market continue, as tractor sales in Canada slump. According to the Association of Equipment Manufacturers' April data, year-to-date tractor sales in Canada are down 18.6 percent from last year. 4-wheel-drive sales are down 22.1 percent, while 2-wheel-drive sales are down 18.4 percent. Combine sales in Canada are bucking the trend,... Read More
Through the third week of May there has been much discussion around last week’s WASDE report from the USDA, as well as weather affecting planting. Oilseeds continued to make the most moves this week, as led by soymeal (up almost 9% for the week and now +46% since the start of 2016). Soybeans, while up... Read More
Earlier this week, Brian Perillat, senior analyst with Canfax, joined Shaun Haney to talk about the May 1 cattle report. The report, published Sunday, showed on-feed numbers in Alberta and Saskatchewan up 8%. What caused the bump? "As Brian alluded in that last interview, the cattle that didn't go south — the feeder cattle last... Read More