There’s a new conservation tillage practice in town. Move over no-till, reduced till and strip till, here comes reservoir tillage. The RT850 reservoir tillage tool from Minnesota-based Willmar Fabrication is designed to run between crop rows and make depressions in the ground using 10-inch teeth to create better water infiltration and reduce runoff. “You’re just... Read More
Category: Western Canada
Judging by conversations with farmers across the prairies, social media, and conferences, 2016 is the year of straight-cut canola. Not long ago, canola straight-cutting was a fringe activity but it appears to be going mainstream. Increase in canola straight-cutting is due in part to tailored hybrids, growers learning from each other, and a focus on... Read More
Engineers keep designing harvest equipment to make it harder to do a poor job combining. An automatic overload response system and improved slope compensation are two highlights for 2017 Lexion combines from Claas, explains product coordinator Jeff Gray in this video, filmed at the 2016 Farm Progress Show in Iowa. Updating the 3D cleaning system... Read More
Grain markets this week were fairly volatile as the market swayed on harvest pressures, fresh policy announcements, and wet weather slowing down Harvest 2016 and/or affecting its quality. Soyoil was the leader for the week, up 4.25% on palm oil touching two-year highs in Asian markets. This intuitively supported canola, which was up almost 2.5%... Read More
It's probably an honest mistake, but there's some irony in having the Prime Minister of Canada — the home of canola — send out a tweet celebrating good news about canola with what appears to be a photo of mustard. 95 percent of Canadians — including the person in the PMO who looks after Justin... Read More
China has loosened its restrictions on imports of Canadian beef, coinciding with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's visit to Ottawa this week. The premier announced Wednesday that China will begin accepting bone-in beef from Canadian cattle under 30 months of age — effective immediately — for the first time since BSE was found in Canada in... Read More
It wasn't that many years ago that corn and soybean growers were riding the wave of $7 corn, high land rent, and applying all the groceries to every acre. In 2016, that wave of optimism has disappeared as suggested in the DTN / Progressive Farmer Ag Producer Confidence Index (ACI) results. The recent survey produced... Read More
Syngenta's SeedCare Institute is officially setting up shop in Canada. The company’s Canadian facility, located at its Honeywood research facility in Plattsville, Ontario, is now part of a network of 12 centres of excellence around the globe, focusing on advancing seed treatment technology and innovation. At the official launch last week, Anja Pires, Syngenta Global... Read More
A sad sign of how tough things have been in the cattle feeding business — one of Canada’s largest feeding operations is shutting down. Good news! A deal to keep Canadian canola flowing into China has apparently been reached, while canola growers are voicing concerns about the Bayer-Monsanto deal. And farmers and rural residents in... Read More
The Prime Minister says a deal has been reached with China to maintain Canadian canola exports into early 2020. "This is great news for our Canadian canola farmers. Our progress on this file goes to show how two countries willing to collaborate can solve difficult challenges together," said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, speaking Thursday morning... Read More