Are you up to speed on the Chipotle restaurant controversy? Briefly, Chipotle, a Mexican grill chain, teamed up with Academy Award-winning Moonbot Studios to create a sappy but incredibly popular animated video that takes a mean-spirited and unprovoked shot at commercial-scale agriculture. It’s become an internet phenomenon, drawing six million viewers over the past couple... Read More
Category: Features
Reports of increased bee deaths in the spring of 2012 in areas of Ontario and Quebec were alarming, but, at the time, attributed at least in part to the unseasonably cool and wet spring. This past spring, however, had more average temperatures but also had a higher than average reported bee kills. What's troublesome about... Read More
It's time once again for the least serious 10 minutes in ag news! And this time the RealAgriculture production team has gone above and beyond the call of duty and put together a truly entertaining package of highlights from Canada's Outdoor Farm Show. In this mostly-not-serious edition of Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down, Shaun Haney and... Read More
The pre-harvest period is a great time to get a handle on what plagued (or is plaguing) the soybean crop this year, how well some of your management practices turned out and filling out the check list for late fall work and early season planning. In this Ontario soybean crop update, three agronomists — Dan... Read More
Brennan Turner recently asked farmers if they'd prefer extra bushels but lower prices, or sky high prices but a poor crop. Not surprisingly, farmers would prefer inventory, likely in part because Canadian farmers are quite comfortable with storing grain. Of course, the yields and volumes coming off fields this fall has left many farmers without... Read More
This mornings frost warning had some Ontario farmer's teeth chattering, but it wasn't the cold that did it. Farmers in the certain counties of Ontario would be understandably nervous depending on how far along their corn crop is. Frost at the wrong time can take a sizeable bite out of your corn yield. Once temperatures... Read More
We have run many different stories and interviews talking about the need to be an agricultural advocate in the past. I hear from many readers that they feel being a advocate for agriculture is a complete waste of time and not a practical role for a farmer. Just watch the below video being promoted by... Read More
Bees, as pollinators, are essential to food production worldwide. So when solid evidence of a link between corn planting and bee deaths in Ontario and Quebec was found, farmers and industry recognized the need to look into how to manage the risk of bee exposure to a particular insecticide class called neonicotinoids. As Steve Denys,... Read More
Bin-busting crops are never something to wish away, but the simple laws of supply and demand eventually come in to play when everyone has a lot of crop to sell. While that's oversimplifying grain markets, the overall message is clear — decent quality wheat, corn and other grains are going to be easy to find... Read More
If you're a farmer who didn't do much forward selling in the last two years, you've likely been very happy with the outcome. If you haven't priced crop for 2013-14 yet, however, it may not end up not having been such a wise plan. Many farmers are harvesting a big crop right now, and, at... Read More