Despite efforts to explain pesticides’ role in modern agriculture, confusion still reigns supreme in the eyes of the public. And no wonder. Pesticides get blamed for a lot of things; most recently, for wiping out bees. That accusation caught the Province of Ontario's attention last summer and fall, when wildly fluctuating accounts of bee mortality... Read More
Category: Western Canada
If you're overwhelmed by trying to keep track of every new crop protection product, formulation, tank-mix and re-cropping restriction, you're not alone. While many farmers and agronomists have a well-marked-up copy of the Guide to Crop Protection, could there be a place for technology to make selecting crop production products easier? Absolutely! Enter Ag-Chem Expert.... Read More
CWB has announced the construction of its second high-throughput grain elevator near Colonsay, Saskatchewan. Situated on the Yellowhead Highway approximately 65 kilometers east of Saskatoon, the elevator at Colonsay will feature 42,000 metric tonnes (mT) of storage and is scheduled to open in time for the 2015 harvest, according to CWB. This announcement comes less... Read More
The Western Livestock Price Insurance Program (WLPIP), announced by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Western provincial ministers on January 24, 2014, is now taking applications. Cattle and hog producers may now use this new livestock price insurance product to help manage unexpected livestock price declines. This new insurance product offers protection against an unexpected drop... Read More
On-farm data collection is invaluable and collecting it, though time-consuming, isn't all that difficult. It's that journey the notepad needs to take to get to the computer that can be more than treacherous. By the time said notepad makes it to the office, it's often a few years old, all but sanitary and open for... Read More
Apps continue to grow and evolve in all aspects of agriculture, with crop commodities eons ahead of their livestock counterparts. Discussions are no longer bound by the confines of a physical community, with information being shared on Twitter, Google+ (check out #cattle and the Cattle Community for a taste of each), Facebook, Instagram and others.... Read More
UAP’s new Focus herbicide is now registered for soybeans. The surface-applied pre-plant/pre-emerge product was first registered for corn in late 2013. Focus is a co-pack of carfentrazone (Group 14) and pyroxasulfone (Group 15) that delivers up to 60 days of residual control, says UAP territory sales representative Chris Renwick. Focus controls tough weeds like barnyard... Read More
From the very simple, to the GPS-reference, cloud-shared, multi-user type, the number of made-for-agriculture apps grows each month. If you've got a current smartphone or tablet, you're set to begin incorporating these handy time savers and data-management tools into your farm. If you're somewhat overwhelmed by the technology, fear not. Some apps are really just... Read More
With new varieties readily available, growing tiny crab apples isn't your only option, prairie-dwellers! In 2008, the University of Saskatchewan released Prairie Sensation, an apple evolved to our prairie climate, and at roughly seven to nearly 8.5 cm in diameter, it's no crab. Though apple trees are largely grown as a hobby, with keen interest... Read More
Are you seeding your canola at 5lb/ac? Unless your seed rate was calculated based on that seed lot's thousand kernel weight (TKW), you may be losing yield potential, as plant numbers decline with increasing seed size. Angela Brackenreed, agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada, suggests re-calibrating when the TKW of a seed lot... Read More