Two potato fields on separate farms on Prince Edward Island are under quarantine after the presence of potato wart was confirmed Thursday. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency didn’t say specifically where the fields are, nor whether they’re near where the wart fungus was discovered in separate cases in 2000 and 2007. On top of the […] Read more
Two P.E.I. fields quarantined with potato wart
U.S. agrifood giant makes Alta. farm retail play
A southern Alberta ag retailer is poised to be the first Canadian country-level branch for U.S. agrifood and fuel co-operative giant CHS Inc. DynAgra Corp., with outlets at Beiseker, Standard, Rolling Hills and Carseland, is to join CHS’s country operations division effective later this month under the name “CHS DynAgra.” “After substantial analysis, we decided […] Read more
Is sucking better than blowing when seeding canola?
Reading Time: 2 minutes A group of researchers is testing to see whether it’s better to suck than to blow when seeding canola. They’re experimenting with a vacuum planter, which works opposite to an air seeder — a vacuum pulls seeds into rotating plates which place the seed into the soil. The attraction is seed “singulation” — the ability […] Read more
Ethiopian mustard a new biofuel option
Hardy Ethiopian mustard is immune to blackleg, but needs to be monitored for alternaria
Reading Time: 2 minutes Those yellow flowers you see when driving down Highway No. 1 this summer may not be canola, but Ethiopian mustard, a new brassica crop intended for biodiesel and bioproducts. Kevin Falk, a research scientist with Agriculture Canada, specializes in breeding Polish canola and Ethiopian mustard, and has been working with them since 1995. He told […] Read moreSuccessful short line facing uncertain future
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Battle River Railway has been operating since 2008, but its operators aren’t sure how the line will adapt after changes to the wheat board. The BRR covers 50.5 miles of track, from Cairon to Alliance, and has rights on eight miles of track from Cairon into Camrose. Towns along the route include Kelsey, Roseland, […] Read more
Project F-250, part one
Reading Time: 3 minutes Most farms have an older pickup truck around that gets all the dirty jobs, like hauling portable fuel tanks, leaky hydraulic hoses and tool boxes back and forth from the field. Usually, they take over from the new, shiny pickup whenever there is a risk of getting it dirty or scratched. When that old truck […] Read more
VIDEO: Keep soybeans out of edible bean crops
Soybeans are a dangerous weed to have in edible dry bean crops and can turn into a costly problem for a bean grower. Farm production advisor Dennis Lange, of Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives’ GO centre at Altona, considered that topic among others at the Crop Diagnostic School, in this eighth of a series […] Read more
Satellites see canola yields slip on heat, disease
A slew of midsummer crop threats including heat, hail and bugs trimmed the potential of Canada’s record-large 2012/13 canola crop, preventing farmers from fully cashing in on high prices, industry analysts say. On Monday, Statistics Canada lowered its unofficial canola crop yield estimate based on an experimental program that analyzes low-resolution satellite data. The Crop […] Read more
Alta. no longer reporting farm fatality statistics
An Alberta workers’ organization alleges the province is trying to move the issue of fatal farm injuries "off the public radar" by halting its annual releases of specific farm fatality data. The province said last week that "due to changes in farm fatality reporting, we will no longer be posting specific statistics on farming fatalities […] Read more
Ontario’s ‘FIT 2.0’ tightens limits on farmland projects
Changes to the program allowing Ontario farmers and landowners to feed the province’s power grid through their own "solar farms" will tighten limits for such operations on arable farmland. The Ontario Power Authority, which launched the province’s Feed-In Tariff (FIT) program in 2009, on Aug. 10 released its final documents for what it called the […] Read more
