There are a number of things you need to get right when growing corn, says Sara Meidlinger, a market development specialist with Pride Seeds.  PHOTOs: Supplied

Cows love it but growing corn for silage or grazing can be tricky

Getting the crop off to a good start through seed selection and good seed placement is critical

Reading Time: 4 minutes Corn can be an attractive option for feeding cattle, but there are a lot of specifics to consider when you choose to grow it. “Corn just tastes good and cows love it. It’s more palatable than barley, and it has a better dry matter intake,” Greg Paranych, agriculture field specialist with the Grey Wooded Forage […] Read more


File photo of a combine harvesting a wheat crop in Ukraine. (SergBob/iStock/Getty Images)

Demand from China puts Ukraine barley above top-end milling wheat

Kyiv | Reuters — Prices for Ukrainian-origin barley from this year’s harvest have exceeded those of high quality milling wheat due to strong demand from China, analysts at APK-Inform said on Friday. Forward contract prices for 2021 harvest barley stood at $220-$230 a tonne c.p.t. (carriage paid to) Black Sea June-July delivery, while high-quality milling […] Read more



This photo from barleyharvest.ca shows AC Bow — one of three newer varieties being recommended for growers this year — being harvested near Lethbridge late last summer. Although only accounting for 2.7 per cent of malt acres last year, AC Bow moved up to fifth spot in popularity. Another recommended variety, AAC Connect, took fourth spot at 5.2 per cent of acres while the third, CDC Fraser, 
was in seventh place (2.1 per cent of acres).

Newer and better malt varieties starting to get some love

Maltsters still smitten with the old standards but the future belongs to new varieties

Reading Time: 4 minutes It’s a slow process to get international maltsters to accept new barley varieties, partly because of unfamiliarity and partly because farmers aren’t growing enough of them. “They do prefer what they know, which are varieties like AC Metcalfe and CDC Copeland,” said Peter Watts, managing director of the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre. “But a […] Read more

U of A gets more funding from grains foundation

U of A gets more funding from grains foundation

Reading Time: < 1 minute The University of Alberta is getting a research plot seeder and combine for its wheat-breeding program thanks to a $289,000 grant from the Western Grains Research Foundation. The program focuses on development of hard red (CWRS) and high-yield (CPS) spring wheat varieties, and also conducts research into genetics of disease resistance, nitrogen-use efficiency in wheat, […] Read more


FarmCash now available across the West

Reading Time: < 1 minute Alberta Wheat is opening up its FarmCash Advance Payments Program to growers across Western Canada. The farm group began the program in the fall of 2018 and offers cash advances to producers of more than 50 agricultural commodities – including all major crops, livestock and honey. There are 33 “administrators” of the federal loan guarantee […] Read more

Like Great Plains, CalPlant says its MDF is as good or better than medium-density fibreboard made from wood, doesn’t use formaldehyde in its manufacture, and is environmentally sustainable.

Company plans straw-based MDF mega-plant at Trochu

Booming fibreboard demand creates opening for Great Plains MDF

Reading Time: 4 minutes Central Alberta wheat and barley growers may soon be able to turn their straw into gold — or at least into cold, hard cash — once an $800-million MDF plant is up and running near Trochu. The recently announced Great Plains MDF plant will convert roughly 800,000 tonnes of wheat straw annually into 480 million […] Read more



WGEA executive director Wade Sobkowich. (Manitoba Co-operator photo by Allan Dawson)

Railways to blame for terminal shortages, WGEA says

Grain handlers take issue with MarketsFarm report

MarketsFarm — The association representing the Prairies’ main grain handling companies says recent delays in loading vessels have less to do with the availability of grain and more to do with the railways hauling it to port. The Western Grain Elevator Association (WGEA), which represents major handlers such as Viterra, Richardson, Cargill and others, raised […] Read more