This year, Farming Smarter brought some very powerful keynote speakers to Medicine Hat for the 2014 Farming Smarter Conference. Speakers included Michael Shermer, the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine and the executive director of the Skeptics Society; William W. Wilson, a professor at North Dakota State University; Trish Sahlstrom, vice president of purchasing and distribution... Read More
Category: Podcasts
A combination of a poor malt barley crop this year and a longer-term downward trend in malt barley acres is leading North American maltsters and brewers to import more barley from Europe. An estimated 70 to 80 percent of the barley crop in Western Canada was hit by rain or snow just prior to harvest,... Read More
Mixing alfalfa and sainfoin for a pasture stand has potential, as research scientists pointed out last week at the Western Canadian Grazing Conference in Edmonton. Sainfoin is a perennial forage legume. It was introduced to North America from Europe and Asia in the late 1800s and has since been used for both grazing and hay.... Read More
Canada's rules and regulations regarding plant breeder's rights adhere to a convention that's over 35 years old, even though there is a more modern, widely accepted convention that's a mere 23 years old — UPOV '91. Bill C-18, currently in the parliamentary process, will bring Canada in line with UPOV '91, a move that has... Read More
The day when unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used for spraying fields in North America could be here sooner than we expect. In fact, for small acres, that day may have already arrived. Several spraying units made by a Swift Current-based RotorSpray attracted plenty of attention at Farm Forum in Saskatoon earlier this month. The... Read More
The latest on the Ontario government's plan to regulate neonic seed treatments, the avian influenza outbreak in B.C.'s Fraser Valley, changes at the Canadian Grain Commission and a review of the markets, including the sharp drop in feeder cattle futures, over the past week — here's the TWORA podcast for December 12th:
There’s been a general decline in prices for used farm machinery in North America since late summer, with some notable exceptions, including larger equipment here in Canada, says a well-known follower of farm auctions across the continent. Based in Rochester, Minnesota, Greg Peterson (also known as “Machinery Pete”) has been tracking auction prices for 25... Read More
Bids for peas in Western Canada will likely move higher in the coming months, thanks to lower supplies and strong exports, says an analyst with Mercantile Consulting Venture. Posted prices for yellow peas have recently been in the $6.50 to $7 per bushel range, but as part of this Pulse School episode filmed last week,... Read More
Canola supplies could be tight by the end of the 2014-15 crop year, depending on who you believe. On one hand, Statistics Canada last week pegged 2014 canola production at 15.6 million tonnes. On the other hand, most of the trade is estimating production at between 14 and 15 million tonnes, with carry-out stocks next... Read More
Traders and analysts were taken aback by some of the key numbers in the crop production report from Statistics Canada released on Thursday morning. While the market was expecting a higher canola production estimate, it was not anticipating the major increase from the StatsCan estimate of 14.1 million metric tonnes in October to 15.6 million... Read More