With clubroot disease showing up in fields east of Alberta over the last few years, there's work underway in Manitoba to survey the entire canola-growing region of the province for the presence of clubroot spores. So far, spores or symptoms have been found in 13 fields in 10 rural municipalities in Manitoba. Spore concentrations in... Read More
Category: Video
From 2013 to 2014, Canada has seen increases in beekeepers, colonies, honey production and value, according to Statistics Canada data. This has the country in a very good position in the industry, says Lee Townsend. Townsend is a commercial beekeeper from Stony Plain, Alberta, and a speaker at the upcoming FarmTech Conference in Edmonton. His... Read More
In May of 2013 the United States Department of Agriculture notified the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) of an outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) in a small number of swine herds in the States. By January 2014, the virus had crossed the border, with the first case of PED confirmed on a farm in... Read More
Research into the role of inputs in field peas has often looked at each individually, with little known on the effects of combining inputs. The Western Applied Research Corporation (WARC) looked to change that with a study that's wrapping up this year. Over the past three years, trials have been conducted at Scott, Melfort, Swift... Read More
Increasing nitrogen rates can actually prove detrimental if producers don't also take the time to apply fungicides, says Peter Johnson, cereals specialist with Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. That's because the resulting improvements in canopy can actually increase the potential for disease development. Enter the nitrogen/fungicide duo. "That synergy is so significant," says... Read More
Dr. Stephen Koontz, of Colorado State University, is shining a light on a rather complicated, but incredibly important part of how cattle prices are currently set. Markets and marketing evolves over time, and the cattle industry is no different. Koontz says that the strong transition from a negotiated cash trade, to formula and forward pricing... Read More
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
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
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