Reading Time: 5 minutes If there was ever any doubt that agriculture would someday run headlong into the blockchain space, it was quashed on Sept. 24. That was the day Walmart announced its leafy green suppliers would be required (in a year’s time) to participate in a blockchain-driven system providing full-chain traceability of their produce. In recent years, Bitcoin […] Read more
The brave new world of blockchain
Digital traceability has suddenly been thrust into the food sector
Canada’s short line equipment makers on the cutting edge
These smaller manufacturers exported $1.8 billion of equipment and implements last year
Reading Time: 3 minutes If you’re frustrated that the big names in equipment manufacturing aren’t rolling out autonomous systems quickly enough, you may want to look a little closer to home. “With the clock ticking on when we’ll see autonomous farming become a commercial reality, my hope is that we’ll see Canadian manufacturers lead the way there,” said Leah […] Read more
Crop Protection ‘Blue Book’ goes mobile
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Blue Book has long been popular reading in the homes of Alberta farmers — and now they can read it anywhere on their smartphones. The Crop Protection book (as it is officially known) is updated annually for previously registered products and includes newly registered pesticide products — herbicides, pesticides, seed treatments, and foliar fungicides. […] Read more
Fully automated feeding — the rise of the machines
Technology that handles everything from feed formulation to delivering it to cattle is becoming ubiquitous
Reading Time: 3 minutes Ken Van Raay remembers how things used to be at his 30,000-head feedlot. It required a lot more co-ordination, that’s for sure. In his previous system, Van Raay dealt with his local feed mill on the phone; spent more time on the road; managed pelleting, storage, blending and monitoring micro-ingredient levels in bins; and generally […] 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
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
The ‘eyes’ have it — the key to better sales, that is
High-tech eye tracking technology literally gives insights into the buying decisions of consumers
Reading Time: 3 minutes Want to get more customers in the door? Get rid of potholes in the parking lot and put an inverted V-shaped canopy over the entrance. Want to boost sales? Put fewer items on the shelf and lower the height of display benches. That was some of the advice offered to Alberta garden centre owners by […] Read more
Buckle up — workplace safety rules may be in for a rough ride
Mandatory seatbelt use is among several ‘pretty big’ regulations that don’t make sense, says the AgCoalition
Reading Time: 5 minutes Over the objections of its farmer members, a committee has recommended the province make seatbelt use mandatory in tractors, combines, and other farm equipment. Forcing farmers to buckle up is just one — although likely the most controversial — of 142 recommendations from four “technical working groups” established to turn Bill 6 into actual occupational […] Read more
Are there old explosives on your farm or ranch?
The RCMP says it regularly gets reports of degraded dynamite and detonators, and even grenades
Reading Time: < 1 minute Not so long ago, Alberta farmers and ranchers had easy access to dynamite and detonators. Because of these old rules, there is a large — but unquantified — amount of degraded dynamite in the province. Every year, many Albertans report finding dynamite or detonators stored, or in some cases forgotten, on their properties. Anyone who […] Read more
Official says ‘One Seat, One Rider’ should be the rule on every farm
Machinery accidents cause the majority of fatalities among children on the farm
Reading Time: 2 minutes Daddy, can I have a ride?’ “Riding on the tractor with Dad has been a long-standing tradition for many farm families,” said Janice Donkers, youth farm safety co-ordinator with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. “It’s not uncommon to hear the older generations boast about how young they were when they first began riding on or operating […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
