Amidst pressure from investors to split its business, Agrium has appointed two big names to its board of directors — David Everitt and Mayo Schmidt. While Everitt, recently retired from Deere & Co., may not be a household name in Western Canada, Mayo Schmidt most certainly is. Schmidt was most recently president and CEO of... Read More
Category: Western Canada
When should you start succession planning? The earlier the better, says farm succession expert Len Davies. In the second episode of the Agricultural Management Institute's (AMI) new farm succession video series, Davies takes us to the Veenstra family farm near Port Colborne, Ontario. Here we meet Andy Veenstra who shares succession tips and strategies he... Read More
Tillage Radish, a large-rooted cover crop, is one we've talked about before on RealAgriculture.com. Kevin Elmy walked us through how he and his neighbours are making use of the crop in Saskatchewan. In this video, filmed at Farm Tech 2013, Patrick Fabian explains how farmers in his area of Alberta are making use of this... Read More
How much would you save if each of your cows ate 10 pounds of feed less per day but gained the same? The exact value would change, but the cost savings would be significant no matter where you farm. But is there a way to not just identify more efficient animals, but also breed the... Read More
The world almost ended twice in 2012. Farmers had to beware of the Mayan calendar but also earlier in the year the CWB officially lost it's monopoly on the sale of wheat in Canada. Some people predicted armageddon, while others believed that the benefits were huge. Chuck Penner, LeftField Commodity Research talked to me on... Read More
Western Canada is the leader in pulse production but there is some discussion regarding the potential of the Black Sea region to put a dent in Canadian exports. This week I was on the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers Regional meeting tour and I heard a very interesting presentation from Marlene Boersch, Mercantile Consulting Venture on the... Read More
From the outside it looks like another piece of John Deere machinery — a swather (or windrower, if you're so inclined) with the trademark green paint and jumping deer. But underneath all that green and yellow paint is a Canadian success story. What you're looking at is actually a product of Winnipeg-based MacDon Industries, and... Read More
Six years ago, Albert Wagner needed 100,000 bushels-worth of added storage. The traditional bin route would have cost him about $2.45/bu over 10 years (including a residual value for the bins), but he also had one of two fertilizer bins nearing the end of its useful life. That got him thinking about bagging grain, which... Read More
Editor's note: This is Owen Roberts' first 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. Food Freedom Day in Canada arrives next week... Read More
There is a new craze in Saskatchewan and it is soybeans. I have been travelling all week with the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers and Kevin Elmy of Friendly Acre Seed Farms (Saltcoats, SK) has been wowing the crowd with indepth soybean agronomic information. Saskatchewan farmers want to grow soybeans and that has been very clear with... Read More