Agriculture’s global profile got a boost last year thanks to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization deeming 2014 the International Year of Family Farming. Journalists wrote enlightening stories about the fact that nearly all Canadian farms are family owned. Politicians spoke in glowing terms about the economic, social and cultural contributions made by family... Read More
Category: Western Canada
Dan Mazier, a grains and oilseeds farmer from near Justice, Man., was acclaimed as president of Keystone Agricultural Producers at the organization’s annual meeting held this week. Mazier replaces Doug Chorney, who has reached his four-year term limit. Mazier served as KAP vice-president for the last four years, and is also chair of the workplace... Read More
Consistent droplet size and canopy penetration are two key points of getting the most out of your spray application (assuming you're after leaf coverage, of course). Sending spray droplets where you actually want them to go is much harder than it sounds — part of the reason for that is air movement and turbulence as... Read More
In late January, over 1,700 people descend on Edmonton’s Northlands Park to learn, network and learn some more at the conference that is The FarmTech Event. A show of that size requires an incredible amount of prep time and an entire team of audio/visual specialists to make sure the keynote and concurrent sessions go off... Read More
Farmers looking to pick up the Bluetooth-controlled CX-6 SMART Seeder can now talk to Rocky Mountain Equipment dealerships. Clean Seed Capital Group Ltd., the company that developed the SMART Seeder, has announced a three-year distribution partnership with RME, one of Canada’s largest agriculture and construction equipment dealership networks with branches located throughout Alberta, Saskatchewan, and... Read More
In about a month, Real Agriculture with tour partner Dow AgroSciences is hosting is hosting five, one-day events across Western Canada. A combination workshop and panel, the TechTour Live event is all about finding efficiency in your existing farm operation. Efficiency may mean a clear succession plan with strong farm leadership (that's what Donald Cooper... Read More
Peter Johnson will be the first to tell you he’s not retiring — he’s just retiring from his role as cereal specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. So while we won’t be completely rid of Wheat Pete, as he’s known, his departure from the ministry still deserves a send-off befitting... Read More
The first of a series of weekly performance measurement reports aimed at increasing transparency related to rail freight capacity and service was released this week, says Pulse Canada, on behalf of the Ag Transportation Coalition. Pulse Canada says expectations are high that government, railways and the ag industry will use the reports as a basis... Read More
North Americans can and do choose to spend 30% or more on organic or market-differentiated food because we can. We're an incredibly wealthy society, by and large, and are only required to spend about 8% of our income on food. So does that give us the right to condemn those who can't afford to pay... Read More
Plant disease is a somewhat different beast than other crop pests, in that your best offense is a solid defense. It’s rare that any fungicide available to you has any curative effect — the best you can do is slow down development of a disease, once established. Under the heading of ‘better to have it... Read More