Reading Time: < 1 minute The North Dakota Farm Business Management Education Program has released its annual estimate of living expenses for a farm household. This figure is based on 251 farms that keep detailed living expense records throughout the year. The average household size of the farms was 3.1 people. Living expenditures averaged $57,404, an increase from $34,889 in […] Read more
Medical Insurance Tops Expense List For U.S. Farmers
COOL — Burdensome, But A Reality For Packers
Reading Time: 3 minutes Testimony of J. Patrick Boyle, president and chief executive officer of the American Meat Institute, before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food June 18 American Meat Institute’s (AMI) 200 general members include some of the most well-known meat and poultry food manufacturers in the United States and Canada. Collectively, they produce […] Read more
Falling Number Will Not Be A Grading Factor
Reading Time: 3 minutes While results of this research have been promising, the CGC has not made a final decision about the use of this technology. The CGC will not move ahead with this technology until sound science supports it. This year, many producers seeded late because of cold, wet weather and this may lead to a late harvest. […] Read more
Alberta Government Could Learn From Ranchers
Reading Time: 2 minutes An editorial from the July 21 Globe and Mail In its report on the state of Canada’s parks, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society praises the success of ranchlands in Alberta in terms of environmental protection. In contrast, the report finds that the natural integrity of the Castle Crown Wilderness Area, which falls under the […] Read more
Food Movie Perfect For The Gullible
Reading Time: 4 minutes Most folks involved in food production and food processing would probably not have heard of a movie called “Food, Inc.” It’s one of those fearmongering films filled with conjecture and innuendo about agriculture and food processing that our public network is all too enthusiastic to broadcast. The problem for agriculture is that this film raises […] Read more
Look Down, Not Up, To See The Next Frontier
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s time to stop giving money to those designing lifeboats from a failing world. In contrast to their parents and grandparents who lived through two World Wars, Canadian baby boomers have lived a charmed life, though not one without some trauma. Practising nuclear-bomb evacuation drills to our school’s mud-floored crawl space during the Cuban Missile […] Read more
Myths Distort Canadian Farm Policy
Reading Time: 3 minutes “(T)he argument that we need to subsidize farming in case the world collapses and we need to supply ourselves simply makes no sense.” Myths exist about the strategic position of food, the importance of the family farm to the preservation of rural Canada, and the need to defend Canadian farming in the face of European […] Read more
Wheat World Goes For Quality, Canada For Quantity
Reading Time: 3 minutes “(D)emand for wheat with defined and consistent quality traits will be one of the most, if not the most, important driver for wheat quality improvement in the coming two decades.” For Sale: One inexpensive but effective method of segregating different types of wheat according to quality and end-use characteristics. Well used, but in good condition. […] Read more
Fertilizer Manufacturers Aggravate Farmers
Reading Time: 2 minutes Comments by fertilizer executives and others implying farmers are putting world food supplies “at risk” by not buying fertilizer inputs are extremely aggravating to their farm customers (see quotes from Bill Doyle in “As farmers cut back on fertilizer, the impact could reverberate far beyond Potash Corp.’s bottom line,” Globe & Mail, April 24, 2009). […] Read more
Oilpatch And Premier Fight Political War
Reading Time: 3 minutes The people and businesses that got the axe first were those hard-working folks in rural Alberta – the supposed bedrock support of the PC party. There are two pillars that hold up the economy in much of rural Alberta – agriculture and energy. Agriculture may be both steady and a way of life, but it […] Read more