In the cattle industry, interest in new corn varieties stems from a desire to increase efficiency and production, whether utilized as a grain source, ensiled or left standing for winter grazing. Ensiled, corn offers high energy, a key to high milk production. And, although much of a silage's quality is determined by in-field management, harvest... Read More
Category: Podcasts
Following the end of the Canadian Wheat Board’s single desk in 2012, new producer organizations were formed to lead market development and research for wheat and barley in Western Canada. In Alberta, the soft wheat and winter wheat commissions joined to form the new Alberta Wheat Commission, while the already-established Alberta Barley Commission assumed some... Read More
There are signs the long-running dispute over U.S. mandatory country of origin labelling (COOL) rules for meat is moving closer to resolution, as a Canadian delegation led by Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz visited Washington, DC. this week. “COOL is on life support,” Ritz told reporters on a conference call on Thursday afternoon. In what was... Read More
How can a producer make their farm more resilient and less vulnerable to both economic and climatic stresses? Focus on the health of the soil, says Ray Archuleta, a conservation agronomist with USDA-NRCS in North Carolina (and also known as the “The Soil Guy.”) Archuleta spoke about the “journey to soil health” during his keynote... Read More
Kelvin Heppner returns to host this week's news podcast, recapping some of the main ag stories from the past week, including the end of an era in futures trading in Chicago, a weather forecast for the rest of winter and spring in Western Canada, keeping nutrients out of the Great Lakes and what "sustainable" looks... Read More
With the overall goal to benchmark the sustainability of Canada’s beef industry, the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB) is currently looking for producer participation. “Verifiable sustainability is a ‘want’ of our major customers, and we are being given the opportunity to define what that looks like,” said Cherie Copithorne Barnes, CRSB chair, in the... Read More
Grain and oilseed markets showed little reaction to the latest stocks estimates from Statistics Canada released on Wednesday. The agency’s December 31st, 2014 stocks numbers were generally in line with trade expectations, with all-wheat pegged at 24.8 million tonnes and canola at 11.1 million (see all the numbers here.) Traders were expecting 25 million tonnes... Read More
Soil moisture observations collected by a new NASA satellite will be used for a number of agricultural applications in Canada. The space agency launched the SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) satellite on Saturday, January 31st — it’s the first satellite dedicated to monitoring soil moisture levels around the globe. Jarrett Powers, manager of Agriculture and... Read More
Not only are there environmental benefits to improved soil biology, but there are economic incentives as well, says a farmer from Ohio who spoke about cover crops and a systems approach to microbiology at the SoilSmart conference in Waterloo, Ont., in late January. Jeff Rasawehr joined Bernard Tobin to discuss six steps for establishing healthy... Read More
Paul Hetherington, CEO of the Baking Association of Canada says we need a better understanding of the public acceptance of genetically engineered wheat. Hetherington spoke at the Western Association of Wheat Growers’ AGM in early January, with a presentation entitled The world as it is, not as we may want it to be. In the... Read More