Straight cutting canola is much more popular in Europe, including this farm in Sweden, than it is in Canada. But that could soon change.

Getting the story straight on straight cutting canola

Pod shatter-tolerant varieties are making straight cutting a more viable option for Alberta canola growers — but it’s not a ‘silver bullet’

Reading Time: 4 minutes One of Canada’s largest seed suppliers is predicting 40 per cent of Prairie canola will be straight cut by 2020. “Last year, only around 11 per cent of acres were straight cut, and we’re saying that in the next four to five years, that’s going to increase by fourfold,” said James Humphris, canola seed and […] Read more

wheat field

Crop conditions improve, harvest operations underway

Alberta crop conditions as of August 9

Reading Time: 2 minutes Rains continued to fall across the province stretching from the Peace Region to the Southern Region. Provincially, crop conditions improved for all Regions from a week ago and are rated as 84 per cent in good or excellent condition, up one per cent from a week ago and up 13 per cent from the 5-year […] Read more


Photo: File/Sharlene Bennie (2014)

Combining begins in drier sections of Western Prairies

Commodity News Service Canada – Producers in southern Alberta have begun to combine some grain and pulses, according to a farm leader. “Down around Lethbridge and south of it, they had pretty decent moisture so they’ve got good crops. Guys are starting to combine winter wheat now and peas,” said Lynn Jacobsen, president of the Alberta […] Read more



From left to right, Joanne Thomsen, Cor Abma, and Gladys and Irvin Kalke with some of the operators of the 20 combines (not all of which were green) at the Leduc and District Growing Project for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

Mighty oaks from little acorns grow

Reading Time: 3 minutes Perched on the seat of a picnic bench brought into the pasture for the big lunch, Gladys Kalke considered the question for a few moments: What do you think when you read about humanitarian disasters around the globe? “Look at all those refugees from Syria coming into Germany, how do you feed and care for […] Read more




Light rains delay harvest, province estimates more than half complete

Light rains delay harvest, province estimates more than half complete

Alberta crop conditions as of September 29, 2015

Reading Time: 2 minutes Over the weekend, most parts of the province received light rains which were enough to delay harvesting operations. However, producers were able to make better harvest progress this past week than during the previous week. Harvest is estimated to be 58 per cent completed provincially, up 12 per cent from last week. While 25 per […] Read more



Vic Almond shows how to hand tie a stook that wasn’t bound properly by the binder.

It’s been a very special year in Ponoka

The horse-powered era of farming has come back to life for Foodgrains Bank fundraiser

Reading Time: 4 minutes They brought in the right ‘team’ and dusted off the ‘know-how’ to complete the first stage of harvest for the Growing with Horses project near Ponoka. Sharing the experience of what farming was like a century ago was a big reason why Ken and Verna Pohl came up with the unique take on the popular […] Read more