by Kent Erickson and Lynn Jacobson In the past 150 years, wheat has played a significant role in the settlement of the Canadian prairies and the development of Western Canadian agriculture. Canada became the “bread basket of the world” because of the quality and quantity of wheat it supplied to countries around the globe. In... Read More
Category: Western Canada
Of all of the aspects of a business that have to be managed, human resources can be the most challenging. The needs and the dynamics involved in managing human resources are unique to every business and have to evolve as a business grows and changes. For many farmers human resources can suck the life out... Read More
With over 200 days of travel as the President of NCBA, Bill Donald has been busy. Donald has reign at the top of NCBA at a time that has been very good for Canada / United States trade relations. With Canada shipping fat cattle south and Canada purchasing one billion dollars of US beef in... Read More
James S Peck owns and operates PX Farms Ltd. in Cambridge, England. The operation is close to 6000 acres and is comprised of a combination of contracted acres and his own family farm. The farm is extremely large for the U.K. and the growth it has seen since PX Farms was established in 2003 has... Read More
The pulse industry across Canada is looking at an aggressive growth strategy in the coming years. The Saskatchewan Pulse Growers Association in particular have targeted a major expansion in acres by 2025 and they're not the only province looking to grow. Alberta as well has some very aggressive thoughts on what may happens to pulse... Read More
This years NCBA conference saw a more positive outlook from producers and industry members than there has been for a while. That outlook comes with some qualifiers as well as some questions that have to be answered as we look ahead to the rest of 2012. I spoke to Duane Lenz of CattleFax about the... Read More
When it comes to succession planning, one of the most difficult things to do may be just getting the conversation started. No other topic can get defences up, arouse suspicions or cause divisions like the topic of succession if it's not handled correctly. Having a pure business discussion with your parents or kids easily crosses... Read More
If you're in the cattle feeding business, you know how tight margins are. With feed costs continuing to be expensive and feeder prices looking toward potential record highs this year, the importance of improving feed efficiency becomes magnified. Watching cattle struggle through wet pens to get to that feed in the spring can be hard... Read More
If you only read news headlines, you’d probably be left with the impression that most of 2011 was a rough spell for Canadian agriculture. But if you dug just a bit deeper, you’d see there’s plenty of room for optimism in our sector. From the 30,000-foot level, the statistics suggest a stagnating industry. Our previously... Read More
Assessing risk is a crucial part of any producer's pest control strategy. If you don't know what to look for or how to look for it, you are setting yourself up for some potentially costly problems. That risk assessment starts with a good knowledge of the previous year including hotspots for activity, and overall movement... Read More