Soil moisture reserves from a wet year in 2016 carried the 2017 crop through a very dry summer across the southern Canadian prairies, enabling some better-than-expected yields, but also leaving the moisture bank account depleted heading into the 2018 growing season. The rapid transition from wet to dry has several implications for the upcoming season,... Read More
Category: Western Canada
December ended with very cold weather across Canada, but overall Canadian tractor and combine sales numbers reported by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) were hot, compared to 2016. The December 2017 the Association of Equipment Manufacturers Canadian Flash Report shows 2WD farm tractors up 15.1%, 4WD farm tractors up 24.5% and self propelled combines... Read More
The USDA will release one of its most anticipated reports on Friday — the January World Agricultural Supply/Demand Estimates or WASDE. Some analysts have referred to it as the Super Bowl of USDA reports. As in sports, the pregame discussions and speculation can be almost as much fun as analyzing the score(s) after the fact.... Read More
Do your corn fields yield less than 170 bu/ac? If so, you have to be careful when removing corn residue from those fields because you could be depleting the field's soil organic matter. That was the message USDA research agronomist Shannon Osbourne shared with those attending the recent Southwest Agricultural Conference at the University of... Read More
India's move to impose prohibitive import tariffs on peas, lentils and chickpeas has left a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the pulse market heading into the 2018 growing season. After back-to-back bumper crops domestically, India implemented a 50 percent tariff on pea imports in November, followed by a 30 percent tariff imposed on lentils and... Read More
Peter Johnson is back with another episode in our ‘Real’ Wheat Farmers series. This time our RealAgriculture's resident agronomist is gleaning management tips from Hugh Dietrich who farms with his family at Lucan, Ontario. Dietrich's advice for Johnson starts with the need to put phosphorus down with wheat in the fall. Tile drainage is also... Read More
Manitoba farmers are being asked for their opinion and direction on the proposed amalgamation of five provincial commodity groups. After months of meetings between board and staff representatives, the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers, Manitoba Flax Growers, the National Sunflower Association of Canada, Manitoba Corn Growers and Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers published their proposed... Read More
Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission members passed a resolution at the group's annual general meeting at CropSphere in Saskatoon on Tuesday directing their board of directors to join Cereals Canada. While other provincial wheat grower organizations are members in Cereals Canada, Canada's largest wheat-producing province is notably absent from the national cereal crop value chain association.... Read More
Precision agriculture provides clear evidence of the impact of yield variability. But often farmers find themselves mired in a swamp of data as they work to create management zones and prescriptions to maximize yield across a field. University of Guelph's Clarence Swanton certainly sees the opportunity for farmers to intensify management and increase yield but... Read More
The national association that represents Canadian agricultural retailers has hired a new executive director. Mitch Rezansoff has taken on the lead post with the Canadian Association of Agri-Retailers following Delaney Ross Burtnack's departure for the Manitoba Canola Growers Association last summer. Rezansoff was most recently the Integrated Solutions Manager at Enns Brothers — a John... Read More