Not having to deal with bale twine or wrap would be a dream come true for almost anybody who's ever taken care of livestock. Three chemistry PhD students at Imperial College in London have invented a bale wrap that's not only edible, but could also be used to provide nutrient supplements to animals eating it.... Read More
Category: Western Canada
Will tiny tractors solve our compaction issues? Are you re-thinking your typical tillage plans? In this week’s Word, Peter Johnson, resident agronomist for RealAgriculture, covers everything from tillage to herbicide and compaction to crop insurance. Skip to Podcast Have a question for Wheat Pete? Call 1-888-746-3311, send him a tweet (@wheatpete), or email him at... Read More
The producer-funded Western Grains Research Foundation has renewed its wheat breeding partnership with the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Agricultural, life & Environmental Sciences, committing $811,587 to the program over the next five years. “The wheat breeding program at the U of A’s Faculty of ALES is an important piece of the western Canadian wheat... Read More
Edmonton's Prairie Urban Farm has an ambitious goal. They hope to convert a shipping container into a traveling food factory — a project that will require $100,000 to complete. Prairie Urban Farm has been running on the University of Alberta's south campus for two years now. It was developed out of a growing concern that... Read More
Responding to rapidly climbing demand from consumers and food companies, a Saskatoon-based company is quadrupling its contracted acres of quinoa production this spring. Northern Quinoa owns the lone Canadian-developed variety of quinoa and is one of only a few buyers of the pseudocereal crop in the country. The company has been growing and producing a... Read More
There have been some significant rallies in the grain and oilseed market over the last week or two, but as they've trended higher, we're also seeing more volatility. Soybean futures have recently rallied more than a dollar a bushel in U.S. terms and have traded in range of more than 40 cents in the last... Read More
The message to canola growers from the Canola Council of Canada and grain companies over the last few months has been straightforward: Don't apply quinclorac herbicide to canola this year because it could jeopardize exports. Farmers will have to sign a declaration saying their canola has not been treated with quinclorac for it to be... Read More
Dairy farmers who make the switch to robot milkers are very predictable, says Brussels, Ontario farmer Joe Terpstra. When Terpstra and three other dairy producers took to the stage at the 2016 Canadian Dairy XPO to share their experiences with robot milking, all four seemed to be singing from the same songbook. Improved cow health,... Read More
Inspired by Jimmy Kimmel's Mean Tweets videos where celebrities read less-than-thoughtful messages sent their way on Twitter, some (celebrity) farmers and people involved in the ag industry have produced "Mean Tweets, Farming Edition." Whether it's the emotions involved in food or something else, people send some pretty nasty tweets to farmers and people involved in... Read More