Reading Time: 3 minutes Progress has been made in getting the provincial government to adopt sensible, practical workplace safety rules for farms, but there’s still work to do, says the chair of the AgSafe Society of Alberta. “There’s some language in the technical wording of the legislation that can be hard to explain and figure out how they practically […] Read more
The devil is in the wording when it comes to farm safety regulations
Farmer input needed before new OHS rules are enforced, says AgSafe Society chair
A small conflict offers some larger lessons on finding solutions
The story of Sarah and Tom shows how easy it is for battle lines to be drawn and how they can be avoided
Reading Time: 3 minutes Sarah was mad at Tom for spending money on a new gun. She has been trying to manage on a tight budget for years and the kids needed new school boots with a long, wet spring just around the corner. Tom argued the money came from the portion of the budget they could both dip […] Read more
Emergency first aid training offered online
Reading Time: < 1 minute St. John Ambulance Alberta is offering First Aid and CPR Awareness Training online. The organization has partnered with Yardstick, an online learning firm specializing in online workplace training, to create online learning on how to help someone during a life-threatening medical emergency. “Moving to a highly interactive, modern online format will make these valuable skills […] Read more
How a business plan helps get ‘cash flow rolling’
It’s easy to get sidetracked when starting a new venture so you need a plan to follow the money, says adviser
Reading Time: < 1 minute A written business plan is key to the long-term success of any business, especially a new venture. “Putting the plan to paper will show you how much startup cash you’ll need in order to generate income,” said new venture specialist Jan Warren. “If you don’t know the startup costs of your venture, you can easily […] Read more
Advance registration now required for obtaining carbon credits
A new rule means producers must register with an aggregator by May 1 to obtain a carbon credit for this crop year
Reading Time: < 1 minute An important change has come to Alberta’s Carbon Offset System. Farmers must be registered with an aggregation company prior to May 1 or they will not be able to claim credits for the 2018 year for the Conservation Cropping protocol, the main offset that farmers currently use. This is a change from previous years, when […] Read more
Robo-tractors invented by farmers are already here
Software-savvy producers aren’t waiting for equipment makers — they’re writing code and automating their machines
Reading Time: 5 minutes Kyler Laird did it the John Deere way when he returned to the family farm in Indiana after his father’s death in 2010. But after five years of sitting in a tractor, planting crooked rows of corn, he decided to do it his way instead. “Even when I was a kid out discing or out […] Read more
Are you keeping your accountant awake at night?
The thought of farms getting hit with a huge — and unnecessary — tax bill is a scary one, say two tax experts
Reading Time: 3 minutes What keeps you up at night? Up and down commodity prices? Weather? Finding (or keeping) rental land? For accountants Ryan Stevenson and Dean Gallimore, it’s the thought of farmers getting whacked with a tax bill they could easily avoid. “One of the best things about farming is that farming companies can transfer from one generation […] Read more
Meet DOT: the self-driving power implement
A Saskatchewan-based company has developed an autonomous tractor — minus the tractor
Reading Time: 6 minutes Bigger doesn’t always mean better — but that’s been the story of farm machinery for decades. However, could the era of huge, hulking tractors and the big implements they pull be coming to an end? Norbert Beaujot thinks so, even though the founder of SeedMaster spent most of his career building some of those increasingly […] Read more
Are you ready to step out of the cab forever?
Special Report: Will farming make a u-turn? Those long, long hours seeding can be drudgery but watching fields being sown on a tablet is brand new territory
Reading Time: 3 minutes Autonomous farm equipment would not only radically change how crops are produced, but the lives of farmers themselves. Norbert Beaujot thinks they will embrace being freed from the tractor cab. “At one end of the scale you get the young, 35- to 40-year-old farmer who really wants to get going with anything new and high […] Read more
No internet, no problem, says DOT developer
Special Report: Will farming make a u-turn?
Reading Time: 2 minutes If you don’t have good internet, would the DOT platform work on your farm? No problem, said Owen Kinch, field research manager with SeedMaster, the developer of the driverless machine. A high-power, high-range Wi-Fi network comes as part of the DOT package, with SeedMaster essentially acting as the internet service provider, he said. “The user […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
