In his regular weekly BeefTalk column, North Dakota State Extension Service beef specialist Kris Ringwall notes the current North American heat wave combined wth high humidity and relatively calm winds have caused considerable loss of life among cattle. He warns that this is not just a problem with feedlot cattle and that night temperatures which […] Read more
Cattle stress – nighttime heat is also a threat
Alberta – good news on bugs, bad on disease
In his latest Call of the Land weekly interview, Alberta Agriculture pest specialist Scott Meers has mostly good news on insect pressure in the province. Meers says four weeks into the six-week monitoring period for bertha armyworms, trap counts are “really low” with one exception in the Fort Vermilion area. He cautions that there could […] Read more
New executive director at WGRF
Saskatchewan Pulse Growers executive director Garth Patterson has stepped down to accept a new position as executive director of the Western Grains Research Foundation. “I am extremely proud to have been associated with one of the most successful industries in Saskatchewan,” Patterson said in a release. Patterson has been with the pulse growers for 16 […] Read more
Alberta announces hog price insurance
The Alberta government has announced a new risk management program for the province’s hog producers. The Hog Price Insurance Program (HPIP) is similar to the CPIP program for cattle. The province says it will help provide hog producers with protection against an unpredicted price decline, and will be delivered by Alberta’s Agriculture Financial Services Corporation […] Read more
Bunge eyes Western Canada after end of CWB monopoly
Bunge Ltd. welcomes Ottawa’s decision to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board and is preparing to jump into Prairie grain handling, according to a story in the July 20 Globe and Mail. In an interview while visiting Winnipeg, Bunge chief executive Alberto Weisser told the Globe that “The concept (of a board) is brilliant, but it’s […] Read more
Pioneer gets approval of single-bag refuge protection
Pioneer Hi-Bred says it has received Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) approval of its Optimum AcreMax insect protection, which integrates insect control and refuge needs in a single bag. Optimum AcreMax bags contain 95 per cent of a Pioneer hybrid with Herculex 1 insect protection plus YieldGard corn borer protection and five per cent of a […] Read more
Plenty of moisture in most of Alberta: crop report
Alberta Agriculture’s biweekly crop report (full report alongside) with conditions to July 14 says that virtually all areas of the province received rain during the previous two weeks, and that overall, soil moisture reserves in the province are adequate to excessive. Provincially, about 83 per cent of spring cereals are in good to excellent condition. […] Read more
Want more respect? Then don’t quit farming
Everyone likes to think they get respect, but the Canadian Federation of Independent Business wanted to know for sure. Accordingly, the CFIB in celebration of 2011 as the federal government’s Year of the Entrepreneur, and its 40th anniversary, the CFIB in partnership with Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co. and Intel of Canada, Ltd. commissioned two opinion polls […] Read more
Ontario and federal governments fund traceability
The governments of Canada and Ontario have announced a combined $21.5 million for the Traceability Foundations Initiative, a new program to track food “from the farm to the dinner plate.” A joint release said the program will support projects led by the agri-food industry to share information, enhance industry competitiveness and improve the speed in […] Read more
Manitoba weekly pest and disease update
Manitoba Agriculture’s insect and disease update has been issued for this week. Topics this week include armyworms in cereals, aphids, thrips, sclerotinia, soybean aphid and green cloverworms. Due to the provincial government publication ban in advance of an election, the reports cannot be posted on the MAFRI website, but are available here and on our […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
