A proposal for a one-million-acre set-aside for pollinators in Ontario by 2018 sounds like something a government or activists would propose, and farmers would lose their minds over. What? A million acres in a province losing 350 acres of prime farmland a day to development? But now, this set-aside program, the gemstone in the new... Read More
Category: Western Canada
Versatile has developed a new DeltaTrack for low-speed, high-torque requirements, the company has announced. Called the DeltaTrack Creeper, the tractor is the first of its kind to be factory-approved for use in low speed applications such as tile plowing. The DeltaTrack Creeper is based on the DeltaTrack Scraper Special but will run in-field at a... Read More
The USDA came and went this week with another WASDE report that was basically a “nothing-to-see-here” release, as the big story to watch is the Grain Stocks and Prospective Plantings report due at the end of March. However, you could look at in the sense that this report gives us a relatively flexible floor as... Read More
You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, but sometimes looks really don't matter. Take misshapen and imperfect fruits and veggies, for instance. Until now, they've been chopped and whirred into soup or sometimes straight into compost instead of hitting store shelves. That's despite the fact that much of this "too ugly"... Read More
The Canadian International Grains Institute (Cigi) is receiving $2 million from the governments of Canada and Manitoba to purchase new equipment for applied grain research. Manitoba Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn announced the funding on Friday. It's part of both governments' larger commitment of $20 million over five years to a "Grain Innovation Hub" in the... Read More
This week’s ag news, all in one place — here’s Kelvin with the TWORA podcast for the week of March 13th, 2015: Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS
The lower Canadian dollar continues to provide support to canola values in the face of large global oilseed supplies. “If you didn’t have this weakness in the value of the Canadian dollar, the price of canola would probably be $30 cheaper," says Wayne Palmer, senior market coach with Agri-Trend Marketing and former floor trader in... Read More
It’s nearly the middle of March, but it feels more like May in many parts of Western Canada. Spring-like days with temps in the double digits for much of the southern areas of Alberta and Saskatchewan seem to have buoyed cattle markets, as it’s likely grass will be abundant and soon. That’s the latest Beef... Read More
In January, the National Beef Strategic Planning Group published its strategic goals for 2020 in a paper that brought to light the full depth of funding issues being faced by the industry. “Since the National Check-off was introduced in 2002,” the report reads, “inflation and a reduced number of marketings resulted in less check-off collected,... Read More
If there's one job on the farm that everyone fights to have, it's certainly not picking rocks. It's a dirty, time-consuming task that never seems to end, and no matter how attentive the operator of the pull-type (or walk-type) picker, there will always be rocks left in the field. Though the Flexxifinger 'Quicker Picker' doesn't... Read More