I had the great pleasure of joining the Manitoba Canola Growers Association for its second Canola Leaders event held November 29 and 30, 2013, at Brandon, Manitoba. About 20 young farmers participated in two days of fun, networking and learning, with a heavy emphasis on the importance of food, understanding consumers, learning leadership skills and... Read More
Category: Western Canada
If you’re still wondering if local food is a fad, and whether you should build a local food component into your crop and livestock production, take heed of the latest consumer food price outlook from the University of Guelph. The outlook, produced annually by a team led by Prof. Sylvain Charlebois, shows consumer interest in... Read More
If you have no idea what to get the rancher in your life, you're not alone. And if your rancher has been dealing with all kinds of snow and winter stress already, it's very likely that whatever you decide to buy/make for the holidays will be set aside for at least twelve months. After the... Read More
Micronutrients may be needed in tiny amounts, but that doesn't mean they're unimportant. When needed, a micronutrient is just as necessary as nitrogen or phosphorus, albeit in much smaller volumes. That difference in volume creates a few logistical issues, as spreading only three to five pounds of any given product over an acre means the... Read More
There likely isn't a farmer around who'd give up their autosteer. Once technology gets integrated into the farming system, it's more likely that you're going to add capability, not take it away. That said, when you're ready move past basic guidance and into true precision agriculture, where do you start? Stuart Lawrence, territory manager with... Read More
Ahead of a presentation I was about to give to dairy farmers in British Columbia, one of the organizers warned me about the chance of a few protestors from the group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) protesting the event. It wasn’t expected to be very large, maybe a dozen people or so,... Read More
Regular readers and fans of RealAgriculture will likely recognize Kristin Phillips, Manitoba agronomist with the Canola Council of Canada, from her appearances in several Canola School episodes. Today, however, we've interviewed Kristin for a very different reason — her sweet baby girl, Bailey Paige, was born in late August with a virus that knocked out... Read More
Canada's beef production system is working at an improved feedback-mechanism to cow-calf producers on carcass quality traits. Why? Because, ultimately, it's the cow-calf producer making genetic pairings and selections, but it's the feedlot operators seeing the results and often receiving the feedback on carcass quality. As the Beef InfoXchange System (BIXS) 2.0 moves into place,... Read More
Noting the decision was "not easy" but a "necessary one," PotashCorp president and chief executive, Bill Doyle, announced this morning job cuts of over 1,000 for the company. The bulk of the jobs lost (approximately 440) will be in Saskatchewan, then the next highest will be in Florida (350) and New Brunswick (140. Many of... Read More
Capturing photos or video footage of the growing season is something that too many farmers do not do enough of. Yesterday We came across a great video produced by Kevin Campschroer from Serfas Farms based in Turin Alberta, Canada. LIKE SERFAS FARMS ON FACEBOOK The beauty of this video is that the majority of it... Read More