Last week's USDA report managed to bring one notable surprise to light. Soybean yields were actually much higher than anticipated. While that may have been a welcome surprise to farmers and is overall a good news story, there will be a bit of an adjustment period while a market, that doesn't really like surprises, adjusts... Read More
Category: Eastern Canada
In September, Bernard Tobin, RealAgriculture.com's Ontario correspondent, explained in this interview that the Slots-at-Racetrack program was ending and ending quickly. As of March 31, 2013, the slot machines would be pulled from Ontario racetracks, and the revenue generated by the slots (and shared with the province) would walk out the door with the machines. The... Read More
The line-ups at elevators in Ontario are continuing to slow down the corn harvest. With corn harvest happening all at once due to the wet weather dryers are having a hard time keeping up. According to Peter Gredig, the additional contributing factor to the long dryer lines is that the yields have generally been higher... Read More
In a good news/not so good news scenario, the 2012 corn crop is showing very low incidence of ear molds. That said, there are likely to be areas with higher numbers, and farmers are reminded to scout or test each field for possible infection, especially if the crop is destined for feed use. In this... Read More
Today, if you haven't heard, is National Show Your 4-H Colours day — a day for current and former 4-H Canada members to wear green and white and show off their 4-H pride. As I donned my Roughriders shirt (2 birds, one-stone!) this morning, I got to thinking about my 4-H years and how they... Read More
The Canadian Young Speakers for Agriculture held its annual speaking event last weekend in conjunction with the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, at Toronto, Ont. RealAgriculture.com was there to film the promising speakers — an amazing mix of passionate, well-spoken and wise-beyond-their-years individuals. This year's junior and senior winners respectively, Dasha Metropolitansky and Lydia Harrison, both... Read More
Yesterday's re-election of Barack Obama was the big news story, but tucked in amongst all the election fan fair and references to Mitt Romney's "binders full of women" was news of several bills being passed or defeated. Of particular note to agriculture was Prop 37, a Californian bill that would require labeling of products that... Read More
After a very dry growing season, farmers in eastern Canada are hurting for hay. Western Canadian farmers know all to well what that's like, having experienced a similar situation in 2002. Farmers, private companies and governments have come together to form Hay East — a program to send much-needed forage from the west to the... Read More
This semester at the University of Guelph, Ontario Agriculture College, Francois Tardif and Mike Cowbrough's Crops 4240 - Undergraduate Weed Science students were given the assignment of making a weed identification video for a weed commonly found in Ontario. The objective is for the students to discuss identification at different growth stages and methods of... Read More
As farmers approach the mid-way point of the Ontario corn harvest (and quickly surpass it, we hope), preliminary reports suggest decent yields in spite of challenging conditions. That said, it most certainly wasn't an ideal growing season, and farmers aren't likely to see their highest ever production this year. What a challenging year does allow... Read More