Reading Time: 3 minutes The weak Canadian dollar and a drop in prices are going to make it tough for crop producers to make a profit this year. Tough, but not impossible, says a provincial farm business management specialist. “You can make a profit this year,” said Dean Dyck. “I took a look at the four major crops in […] Read more
Margins are tight — will you be able to squeeze out a profit this year?
Management specialist Dean Dyck says have a break-even budget, buy inputs early, and forget about machinery purchases
New gene-based fungicide could combat fusarium
Their method? Target the gene that allows the pathogen to reproduce and ‘knock it down’
Reading Time: 3 minutes A team of University of Lethbridge students has developed a potentially game-changing product that could wipe out a widespread problem for cereal growers — fusarium graminearum. “It’s a really pertinent local issue, but it’s also a global issue, so it expands the potential impact (of our project,)” said Graeme Glaister, a fourth-year neuroscience student at […] Read more
Investor says land-grab fears not justified
Bonnefield Financial has raised more than $300 million to buy and lease back Canadian farmland
Reading Time: 5 minutes We’ve all heard it: rumblings in coffee shops and at conferences about land grabbers buying up good farmland. And those rumblings have only grown louder over the past few years, as investors such as the Canadian Pension Plan buy large parcels of cropland in the Prairies. But by and large, those fears can be put […] Read more
Extended grazing saves time and money — if done right
Winter grazing is a simple concept, but the trick is in things like good body condition scores in fall and the right grazing sequence
Reading Time: 3 minutes Winter feeding cattle is a matter of using the right tool at the right time, says a federal forage specialist. “Placing grazing methods in sequence is probably going to be the efficient method time after time to reduce risks and costs,” said Vern Baron, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. “In this day […] Read more
Late is not great when it comes to seeding wheat
Wheat growers need to get their crop in the ground as early as possible if they want to maximize yields
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s time to start treating wheat like it’s a “real crop,” says Ontario agronomist ‘Wheat Pete’ Johnson. “Wheat is the most responsive crop to management we grow, and yet it’s the crop that we manage the least,” Peter Johnson said at the Farming Smarter conference last month. “You just put it in the ground and […] Read more
Looking to cut costs and increase profits? Try the five per cent rule
Increasing yields and your sale price by five per cent while cutting costs by the same amount can double your profit
Reading Time: 3 minutes In the sport of baseball, the difference between superstar Derek Jeter and a squad player is simply hitting one more ball every 20 times at bat — a five per cent improvement done “over and over and over again.” Well, that’s fine for baseball, but what does five per cent look like in farming? “If […] Read more
Tech conference brings together bright minds to ‘hack’ ag industry issues
The Emerging Agriculture conference Jan. 9-11 aims to foster ag industry innovations
Reading Time: 3 minutes Move over, Silicon Valley — hackers will soon be setting their sights on Saskatoon to solve the industry’s biggest problems. The agriculture industry, that is. “Emerging Agriculture is a weekend hackathon where we get students and non-students interested in agriculture together to collaborate on agriculture-based technology and ideas, and hopefully make some startup companies out […] Read more
Put more jingle in your jeans this winter
Shopping around, alternative feeds, and how you store your hay can make a huge difference to the bottom line
Reading Time: 3 minutes With cattle prices off their record highs, many producers are sharpening their pencils. And it can be well worth it. “We have to watch our input costs — that’s the one thing we can control,” said Dean Dyck, a farm business management specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. “If our incomes go up but our […] Read more
Farm leaders aren’t happy, but willing to try again
The last round of farm safety ‘consultations’ wasn’t meaningful, but farm reps say they’re cautiously hopeful the next round will be
Reading Time: 3 minutes As far as Alberta farm leaders are concerned, “all bets are off” on whether producer groups will be consulted on farm safety regulations following the passing of the controversial Bill 6. “We were told right from the get-go with the new NDP government that they wanted to consult with us, and I guess that means […] Read more
News flash: Farming is fun
Reading Time: 2 minutes Being an ag reporter is, by all accounts, a pretty interesting job — until you’re talking to a group of six-year-old farm kids who just want to visit the dairy barn already. Last month, I was invited to give a little presentation about my job to a central Alberta 4-H Cleaver Kids club, a precursor […] Read more
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