The Saskatchewan Forage Council (SFC) recently completed a study to investigate the status of trace mineral across the province. Pastures were sampled in 2012 and 2013, looking at four soil zones and various forage species in spring and fall. In general, the study found copper and zinc decreased from spring to fall, while iron, manganese... Read More
Category: Western Canada
A Canadian winter can seem endless, with few hours of daylight and many hours of shoveling snow. This year, I vowed to stave off the winter blues (as needless as that now seems). Besides taking the time to exercise and eat well (especially post-Christmas), I've also been focusing more on finding the beauty in the... Read More
Grain prices continued to slide on the futures boards through the middle of January as the complex continues to sort through supply and demand tables (the former, supply, being more plentiful at this point in time). Mostly, grain markets are feeling the effects of a strong U.S. dollar, while other currencies are suffering due to... Read More
This week, TWORA's guest host with the gruff voice, Debra Murphy, gives highlights of some of the news from the Alberta Beef Producers and a recent funding announcement at the Saskatchewan Beef Industry Conference. She also hears from Lyndsey and Shaun, who were out of the office this week on adventures to tropical Alberta and... Read More
Cigi’s (Canadian International Grains Institute) applied research work into optimizing the nutritional quality of pulse flours got a significant funding boost today with the Government of Canada committing nearly $1 million for a four-year project. Cigi’s Advancing Pulse Flour Processing and Applications project will receive $959,918 from the Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program (CAAP). The project... Read More
Bleeding edge, leading edge and early adopters — how far has variable rate and precision farming evolved in just five years? For the answer to that question, Shaun Haney caught up with Scott Phillips, with FarmersEdge, at Saskatoon’s Crop Production Show. From the difference between treating data like a commodity or an information source, to... Read More
The hangover of 2014's long, drawn out, wet harvest has already taken a toll on seed supplies of certain crop types for 2015, says Holly Gelech, Biovision Seed Lab's business development manager. The full fallout, however, has likely not been realized. "Farmers did a great job this fall getting seed samples in early," says Gelech,... Read More
The ongoing quest — or battle — to feed the planet is not solely a foreign affair. Nor is it a product of war or natural disaster. Take Ontario, for example. In one of Canada’s most affluent provinces, more than 375,000 people use food banks every month. The underlying causes of Ontarians’ hunger are different... Read More
Barley water, anyone? While most Canadians associate eating barley as beef and barley soup, this ancient grain is actually much more flexible than that. In some countries, barley is already considered a premium ingredient, thanks to verified health claims, and is consumed as a drink or in noodles and baking, says Linda Whitworth, market development... Read More
Four additional seeds per plant can result in a five to ten percent bump in soybean yield — every little bit adds up. That was the message from Tony White, St. Louis-based technology development lead with Monsanto, speaking at the Southwest Ag Conference in Ridgetown earlier this month. “When you look at where we’ve come... Read More