As the time for applying a plant growth regulator (PGR) to wheat approaches, there have been many questions about whether Manipulator, a PGR introduced in Canada by Engage Agro in 2015, has been approved for exports into the US. The answer is no. "Engage Agro does not anticipate the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) in the... Read More
Category: Western Canada
A big spike in the United States' live cattle cash market left producers hopeful late last week. "In the south — down in Texas, Kansas — we had the market up three dollars, to $1.28 US," explains Gateway Livestock's Anne Wasko, in this week's Beef Market Update (included below). "And the northern markets — Nebraska,... Read More
A guest editorial by Cam Dahl, president of Cereals Canada. I saw a cartoon recently that showed an oil company executive at the Department of Motor Vehicles asking if this was the place to buy a social license. If only it actually worked that way. What is “social license” anyways? Generally speaking, it is the... Read More
We often hear of the importance of trade, with headlines updating us on international trade deals. But, that's only the tip of the iceberg. With each trade deal there are opportunities and risks, and it's up to individual businesses, including farms, to assess how they could be impacted. "We're a trading country and our agri-food…Read More
After going nearly 500 days without any new cases, porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) has been found on three Manitoba hog farms in a span of 10 days. On Saturday, the province's chief veterinary officer confirmed the third case in a sow barn in the southeast region of the province. It follows positive PEDv samples... Read More
When University of Guelph agricultural economist Alfons Weersink told me he was tackling the question “Who is a farmer?”, I immediately thought of the late Paul Harvey. He’s the broadcaster whose 1978 Americana classic, “So God Made A Farmer,” was brilliantly revived in a 2013 Super Bowl ad for Dodge trucks. In it, Harvey praised... Read More
Herbicides are one tool for managing cleavers in canola, but there are many other "small hammers" in the toolbox as well. Seeding rates, row spacing, control timing, and crop rotation all need to be considered, explains Ian Epp, agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada, in this episode of Canola School. "We can add…Read More
Wearing blue t-shirts that read "Canadian milk matters," dairy farmers from across Ontario and Quebec rallied on Parliament Hill on Thursday. The event was organized to show support for supply management and to bring attention to a basket of import-related concerns, explains Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) president Wally Smith, in the interview below. "We... Read More
On Wednesday, McDonald's announced the completion of its Verified Sustainable Beef (VSB) Pilot, and handed the results — and recommendations — to the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB). "It's a really exciting day to talk about the accomplishment over the last year and a half that McDonald's has been doing the pilot project here... Read More
Soybeans. Who cares about anything else? The oilseed has taken the majority of the grains complex with it to heights that most analysts didn't think were possible a few months ago. Sure, you lose a couple million tonnes in Argentina, but with bigger crops in Brazil and North America, and demand climbing a bit, there’s... Read More