Category: Western Canada

Herbicide spray drift gets all the attention, and for good reason — the impacts are visual and nearly immediate. Does that mean drift doesn't occur with other products? Absolutely not. It also doesn't mean it's OK to skip steps to minimize drift of fungicides or insecticides. The reasons for doing so are financial, agronomic, environmental... Read More

If you've been watching U.S. corn and soy acreage estimates closely, Monday's production and acreage downsizing of the soybean crop may not come as a surprise. In fact, many farmers and analysts were scratching their heads at earlier figures given the poor growing conditions and late start both crops had. Still, when the USDA numbers... Read More

Canada Beef Inc (@CanadianBeef) and the Canadian Country Music Association (@CCMAofficial) announced in a “Tweet Release” tonight that they have partnered in search of Canada’s Biggest Country Music Fan. “Canadian agriculture and country music go hand in hand," says Heather Travis, Director, Public Relations & Marketing Communications, Canada Beef Inc., "so this is a great... Read More

Perhaps the only thing more irritating than a plugged run at seeding is a blocked nozzle at spraying. While proper sprayer maintenance can help decrease the incidence of plugged or broken nozzles, nozzle monitoring systems are a great way to instantly know whether you're over or under applying product. At this year's Farm Progress Show,... Read More

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

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