Reading Time: 3 minutes For decades, the experts have treated the growing problem of herbicide-resistant weeds as something solvable by the next new chemistry or biological breakthrough. But now more are stepping back and acknowledging it as a symptom of a much bigger issue in modern agriculture. In fact, one of the world’s leading experts in managing herbicide resistance […] Read more
Herbicide-resistant weeds are just the symptom
Is resistance the problem, or is it farmers’ dependence on chemistry?
The ‘new’ wore off of ‘normal’ pretty quickly
The grain industry may have gotten a little too optimistic after last year’s whopper of a crop
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s easy to get a little giddy when things go much better than expected. For example, take last year’s bin buster of a crop. By any measure, it was an astounding production feat. Western Canadian farmers shattered all previous records on most major crops, growing a whopping 76 million tonnes, 50 per cent higher than […] Read more
Out of step with the people who matter most
A $100,000 study of consumer perceptions of agriculture speaks volumes about those asking the questions
Reading Time: 3 minutes The final report to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada from a series of consumer focus groups it commissioned last year is enlightening — but not because of what it tells us about how domestic customers view this country’s agriculture sector. Rather it speaks volumes about the people asking the questions. The final report “Modern agriculture and […] Read more
Were those frozen ears and sore feet caused by a cold winter?
Ergot-contaminated feed is causing a wide range of easily misdiagnosed herd health problems in Western Canada
Reading Time: 4 minutes Long, brutally cold Prairie winters could be masking signs of a serious toxin lurking in livestock producers’ feed bins, a University of Calgary veterinary professor warned feed and livestock industry officials recently. Dr. Eugene Janzen, assistant dean of clinical practice, said he was initially perplexed in the winter of 2013 when he observed Alberta feedlot […] Read more
Ergot becomes invisible in manufactured feed
Researchers and feed makers say new guidelines for assessing risk are needed
Reading Time: 2 minutes The two pictures of pelleted feed veterinary toxicologist Dr. Barry Blakley put up on the screen at a recent ergot symposium here looked identical. But one had enough toxins in it to kill livestock. The rising levels of ergot in western Canadian cereal grains and forages has turned into a nightmare for the manufactured feed […] Read more
Dutch farmer finds animal health and welfare go hand in hand
Gerbert Oosterlaken wants animal welfare advocates on his side instead of the opposition
Reading Time: 5 minutes When Gerbert Oosterlaken began designing a new 600-sow barn on his livestock and crop farm in this densely populated district, he wasn’t interested in state-of-the-art production systems. He looked 20 years into the future — one he believes will be driven as much by how well he can get along with his non-farming neighbours as […] Read more
A kinder, gentler way of killing chickens
Mountain View Poultry in Okotoks, Alta. will be among the first to install it
Reading Time: 4 minutes It used to be that if the preacher said he was coming for dinner, a chicken met its maker before lunch. Cooking up a fresh bird was the on-farm version of fast food long before Colonel Sanders hit the scene with his Kentucky Fried franchise. A hen could contribute to the family’s breakfast and still […] Read more
Getting the mail — and much, much more
Reading Time: 3 minutes Tucked away in various corners of this old house are bundles of letters, held together by elastic bands or stuffed into a big envelope. One of those bundles dates back more than 60 years. It was exchanges between two young people working in different communities the year before they married. That bundle of letters survived […] Read more
Biotechnology — whose voice should be heard?
Biotech pioneers won this year’s World Food Prize, but the ‘Frankenfood’ debate still rages on in North America
Reading Time: 3 minutes It was hard not to smile when one of our African colleagues on a CropLife International tour at the World Food Prize event in Des Moines, Iowa asked a presenter to address rumours that clothes made from genetically modified (GM) crops will make a man bald and impotent. After all, after nearly 20 years of […] Read moreConsumer acceptance remains elusive for biotechnology sector
World Food Prize laureates say better methods are needed for communicating science to the general public
Reading Time: 4 minutes The greatest challenge feeding the world’s growing population is not about the science needed to boost production, it is convincing the public to accept it, scientists receiving the 2013 World Food Prize said here last week. The three scientists honoured as pioneers of genetically modified crops spent much of their time defending the two-decades-old technology […] Read moreCyber-Savvy Farmer
