How much time should farmers invest in trying to explain modern agriculture to people unwilling to listen? Feedstuffs journalist and commentator Andy Vance believes agriculture stakeholders need to concentrate their communications efforts on consumers who freely choose food produced by modern agriculture and are either neutral or supportive of using efficiency-enhancing technologies to grow food.... Read More
Category: Eastern Canada
There will be more pulses (surprise!), barley, corn and durum planted on Canadian farms in 2016, according to StatsCan's acreage estimates published on Thursday. The canola acreage number was likely the largest surprise in the report, coming in below trade expectations at 19.3 million acres, down from 20.1 million in 2015. (see numbers below) "I... Read More
After a long winter of farm shows, conferences and trade shows it made a lot of sense to hop back on an airplane and take the family on a vacation. It wouldn't surprise many of you that I have a few Aeroplan points to use up. Free flights!!! In today's world of busy, taking time... Read More
The Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) officially launched their sustainability initiative this week in Ottawa. The initiative, called proAction, includes national standards for milk quality, food safety, animal care, traceability, biosecurity and the environment. It's a way to showcase what the industry's strengths, while also encouraging constant progress and improvement. "As dairy farmers, we are... Read More
In this week’s Word, Peter Johnson, resident agronomist for RealAgriculture, talks compaction, fertility, staging of winter wheat, the value of neonicotinoids on soybean seeds, the smoke test, and so much more. Skip to Podcast Have a question for Wheat Pete? Call 1-888-746-3311, send him a tweet (@wheatpete), or email him at peter.johnson@bell.net. Highlights (01:00) Winter... Read More
This August the Canadian beef industry is about to embark on a new opportunity for all stakeholders to congregate. Enabled by the national beef strategy, a new national meeting is being organized and it will take place August 9-11 at the Grey Eagle Resort and Casino in Calgary, Alberta. There are many cattle events throughout... Read More
Did you know we're in the thick of the thirty-second annual National Soil Conservation Week? It runs April 17-23, and gives us a reason to consider the ground beneath our feet. "Soil conservation is much more than making the land we farm more productive," Paul Thoroughgood, Soil Conservation Council of Canada (SCCC) chair, said in... Read More
The Ontario Court of Appeal has denied Grain Farmers of Ontario an appeal on the dismissal of the farm group's case against the provincial government's seed treatment regulations. "We're pretty disheartened by the whole situation. We felt we had a good case before the courts, so we're disappointed, but the one highlight is that the... Read More
Editor's note: Saskatchewan dairy farmer Cam Houle's tweet about people taking farmers for granted has resonated widely, receiving more than a thousand retweets since it was posted on April 10th. RealAg's Shaun Haney wrote this column "Has Farming Become a Thankless Job?" in response. Now Cam shares the story behind the tweet and the lesson... Read More