In this week’s Word, Peter Johnson, resident agronomist for RealAgriculture, tackles everything from frost seeding to broadcasting fertilizer. 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: Get the red clover on the wheat! For goodness sakes, don't wait any longer! No changing Wheat Pete's... Read More
Category: Podcasts
Satellites are helping depict a clearer picture (literally) of what Canadian farmers grow each year. Accurately predicting and measuring production of each crop grown in Canada has been an ongoing quest for the grain industry and government agencies since farming began in North America. Or at least since the start of the 20th century when... Read More
Thanks to changes in legislation in the province, and an ever-growing interest in food and drink, craft breweries are popping up across Alberta. "We know as brewers that the best barley on earth comes from Alberta," Graham Sherman, of Tool Shed Brewing told us. "And we also know that we have the best malthouses on... Read More
For many of us, shiny new equipment with the industry's latest innovations are more than eye-catching — they're drool-worthy. But, you might not have to rush out to get a new sprayer just yet. "There's a lot of things you can actually do to increase the value of your sprayer — or the performance of... Read More
Pierceton, Illinois farmer Jamie Scott has been preaching the gospel of cover crops for 10 years. At the recent Innovative Farmers of Ontario annual meeting in London, Scott described how his father was his first and toughest convert. When he told Jim Scott that his idea to plant cover crops on their farm would cost... Read More
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization hosted an international symposium in Rome last month on The Role of Agricultural Biotechnologies in Sustainable Food Systems and Nutrition. The FAO's goal for the event was to debate and exchange ideas on how biotech can benefit smallholder farmers — both in sustainability and nutrition — in the... Read More
Ontario’s 2016 budget made many headlines last week – from free university tuition for low income families to a 4.3 cent climate-change-fighting gas tax, and even a lower-than-expected deficit. But what does it all mean for agriculture, farmers and rural Ontario? With some help from our RealAgriculture twitter followers, we peppered Ontario Agriculture, Food and... Read More
Update as of March 3, 2016: The landowners conducting the protest have "retreated" following a commitment, they say, from Manitoba Hydro to move equipment out and clean it. They're asking to have a third party, possibly the CFIA, ensure biosecurity protocol is followed. Spokesperson Jurgen Kohler says Hydro crews aren't meeting their own biosecurity standards,... Read More
Back in the winter of 2013-14 when Western Canada's grain industry was bogged down in a massive rail backlog, the upcoming review of the Canada Transportation Act was viewed as an opportunity to improve the way the rail system moves grain. The review process began in May of 2014 and the final report written by... Read More
Over the past few years, we've been inundated with media updates surrounding H5N1, Ebola, and now, Zika virus. But something we often overlook in all the coverage, is that many diseases — and in fact, all three of the aforementioned — are zoonotic. In other words, they can be passed between humans and animals. That... Read More