In this week’s Word, Peter Johnson, resident agronomist for RealAgriculture, examines everything from early N applications in wheat to the maple syrup harvest. 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: The 2016 crop season has begun in Ontario with some nitrogen going down... Read More
Category: Podcasts
Cows aren't the only creatures that need to be trained to use a dairy robot. The value a dairy farm gets out of an automated system depends on all the people involved knowing how to utilize the machine's capabilities. "That robot is doing nothing more than milking your cows," explains Ben Smink of Lely North... Read More
The federal government is finding ways to spend $19 billion more than promised during the election campaign last fall. Some of that money will be spent in agriculture-related areas. Finance Minister Bill Morneau's first budget, unveiled Tuesday, projects a $29.4 billion deficit in 2016-17 — well beyond the $10 billion deficit outlined by the Liberals... Read More
Working capital is the king of financial metrics, especially during the bottom of a market cycle. A farm can have large swaths of land and other equity on its balance sheet, but if it doesn't have cash or liquid assets to make monthly payments, the business will soon be in trouble. "A wheelbarrow full of... Read More
While sunflowers often pencil out well, concerns about quality and yield risk at the end of the year are all-too-common when it comes to growing them. "It's a high value crop and if you treat it that way, it's going to pay," says Troy Turner, agronomist for the National Sunflower Association of Canada, in the... Read More
Anybody thinking of growing lentils or peas in Western Canada this year? Syngenta is introducing a new fungicide to help growers protect pulses from foliar diseases such as anthracnose, ascochyta blight, mycosphaerella blight and powdery mildew. Elatus features two modes of action — a combination of Syngenta's new Group 7 fungicide known as Solatenol (benzovindiflupyr)... Read More
Farmers are dealt a hand of cards each year. There are cards of fortune and cards of misfortune. Maybe it's a wet spring or corn prices below $4/bu or skyrocketing fertilizer costs. Maybe you get all three in the same hand. A farmer can't always choose what they're dealt, but they can choose how to... Read More
Do you know which fields make you money and which ones don't? At what point in the year do you sit down and determine what your breakeven costs are for a specific piece of land? The FieldValues app was designed to help farmers keep information about costs and break-even prices current throughout the growing season.... Read More
A year ago we ran a post describing the grandparent wisdom you should never forget on the farm. This list of five things was very popular, even inspiring several additions to the list through reader emails, twitter and Facebook. All things are not golden though — it's time to release the list of the things... Read More
A shortage of workers is limiting Canada's economic potential, especially in agriculture. Annual farm cash receipt losses to Canadian producers due to job vacancies are $1.5 billion, according to a report released this week. Postmedia columnist Andrew Coyne was the opening keynote speaker at the "Growing the AgriWorkforce Summit" in Winnipeg and he joins us... Read More