In a perfect world, all canola fields would have uniform maturity and one large, heavily podded main stem, making swath timing decisions easy peasy. The reality, of course, is that emergence problems, hail events and heat stress can all cause maturity variability, excessive branching or yield-heavy secondary stems that need to be included in the... Read More
Category: Western Canada
Even if you were never the type to peek at your Christmas gifts early, there are few farmers who can help themselves from trying to get a bead on the corn crop coming. Luckily, assessing corn cob development is a useful task at this point in the growing season, as it offers up not only... Read More
If you've never attended Canada's Outdoor Farm Show, or if it's been years since you last went, the show's 20th anniversary event slated for September 10,11 and 12, 2013, is sure to impress. Each year, the show's organizers work to make the event not just bigger, but also better for the farmers eager to check... Read More
Abiotic — or "nonliving" — stresses can cause significant yield loss in canola. And, unfortunately, symptoms like sterile and distorted pods, flower blast and pale petals are not unique to one stressor, making misdiagnosis very common. For example, extreme heat, nutrient deficiency and herbicide injury can all result in very similar damage in canola plants.... Read More
Beef producers in North America, like everyone else in this day and age, have to deal with a lot of issues. Some of those are ground level and some of those are big picture, thirty-thousand foot level issues. As the world gets both bigger in population and smaller (more globally interconnected through advances in technology... Read More
The interesting news on the cut-out front is that the Canadian AAA cut-out has finally caught up to the equivalent US Choice cut-out (in Canadian dollar terms). At the end of July the AAA cut-out was reported at $194. Meanwhile the Choice of $188 converted to $193 Canadian equivalent or $1 lower than the Canadian... Read More
Editor’s note: This is Owen Roberts’ Real Talk, Real Action column. Each week, Owen will offer his insight into how farmers and the agricultural industry can participate in the rural- and ag-related discussions going on around them. Contact Owen at owen@uoguelph.ca or on Twitter at @TheUrbanCowboy. Transparency – that is, being forthright, ethical and proactive... Read More
Trichomaniasis and vibriosis are infectious diseases that cause infertility in cattle as a result of embryonic death. Cows will often abort within the first 90 days of pregnancy, making it difficult to detect. One of the few signs of infection is a higher than average number of cows coming back into service in late fall,... Read More
Versatile unveiled the ML series air drills in 2012. These drills features technology that incorporates: "Accurate seed placement with Level, Independent openers for uncompromised Vertical Emergence of crops," or, "ALIVE" technology. The drills focus on providing an accurate and consistent seed placement based on the angle of the parallel linkage on the gauge wheels compared... Read More
The decision to swath or straight-cut is one you will ultimately have to make on your own. It may depend on a multitude of factors: the number of people available to help, the plant stand, how many acres you have to harvest etc. etc. But, what if you gave it a shot? Would you commit... Read More