In the eyes of General Roméo Dallaire you have three options when it comes to conflict: you can choose to just survive it; build a wall; or resolve it at home, abroad, and at the source. Dallaire was the opening keynote speaker at FarmTech this week, and he shared stories of leadership, moral integrity, and... Read More
Category: Tradeshows Events
Tuesday in Edmonton, Alberta, FarmTech began, and like every year the agenda is loaded with the best in concurrent and keynote speakers. With over 50 sessions over three days, FarmTech is the leading agronomy, marketing, and farm management conference in Canada. Yesterday, Shaun Haney introduced FarmTech to the RFD-TV and Rural Radio audience as he... Read More
Innovation doesn't have to be high-tech or complicated, as Ron Gramlich of Bashaw, Alta., will attest. Tired of crawling up bins while working at a fertilizer facility, Gramlich created what he's marketing as the "BinKnocker." "It's simply a hockey puck on a rope, with stainless steel brackets fastened to the outside of the bin," he... Read More
With federal and provincial governments rolling out carbon taxes or cap and trade programs, organizations representing farmers have been forced to choose a strategy they believe will result in the best outcome for their members. Some, such as the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, are digging in their heels and fighting any carbon tax head-on,... Read More
Do wheat varieties perform in line with the ratings provided during the registration process? When it comes to fusarium head blight tolerance, the short answer is yes, but the long answer is it depends on the year. Holly Derksen, plant pathologist with Manitoba Agriculture, explains that the province has been tracking resistance performance of wheat... Read More
Can we push feed and even malt barley varieties to sky-high yields? Steve Larocque, of Beyond Agronomy, has completed a four-year field trial that says yes, but there's a catch. Inspired by what he saw on a 2010 trip to New Zealand, where feed barley averaged 207 to 210 bushels per acre, Larocque started digging... Read More
Tough to say and even harder to control, aphanomyces has the potential to significantly reduce pea and lentil yields, and can stick around in the soil for an extremely long time. It's recommended that farmers not plant pea or lentil for five to six years if aphanomyces has been confirmed in a field, but that's... Read More
The announcement last week of a $400 million pea processing plant in central Manitoba caught many in the farm community by surprise. "Peas? Don't you mean soybeans?" was the most common response. By far. With another 20-plus percent increase in soybean acres expected, there will likely be north of two million acres grown on the... Read More
Despite the protectionist rhetoric coming from President Trump, the trade critic for the federal Conservatives sounds hopeful — even optimistic — about Canada's trading relationship with the United States. "It's fine to say you want to put America first. It's fine to say you want to create jobs at home, but at the end of... Read More
There's a concerning trend in Ontario's soils: organic matter is being depleted. The decrease may seem small — about 0.8% over 12 years — but organic matter is vital to soil's water holding capacity, nutrient-cycling ability, and compaction resiliency, to name just a few roles. What's more, replacing lost soil organic matter is a slow,... Read More