Reading Time: 6 minutes In the mid-2000s, a spirited discussion between a private-sector crop adviser and a public-sector employee working in extension reflected the disparity that existed between corn and soybean production. At the time, corn yields were climbing at a stronger pace than soybeans, despite the arrival of glyphosate-tolerant soybeans. The adviser suggested that more had been done […] Read more
Should agronomic practices focus more heavily on soybean production?
Growing soybeans more intensively raises crucial new questions
Highlights of Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show 2015
Old favourites were aplenty but some of the new demanded more attention
Reading Time: 6 minutes Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show makes us expect to see “something new.” Everything from multi-hybrid planters to robotic milkers and the latest in all-terrain vehicles have made their debuts at the Woodstock, Ont. show. This year’s 22nd annual edition was no exception. Below, we discuss some of the launches and announcements that caught our attention. First, […] Read more
The next ‘biotechnology’
Faster to market, with even more potential usage, microbial innovations are set to enhance today’s biotech options
Reading Time: 7 minutes When the word “biotech” first leapt onto the agri-food scene, there were plenty of proponents and opponents for the science of implanting different genes into corns, soybean and canola genetics. The first Bt hybrids offered yield advantages, and the early days of glyphosate-tolerant soybeans saw cost savings that began with weed management practices but also […] Read more
The Integrated Pest Management (IPM) challenge for today’s crops
Are you keeping on top of all these new pest-control opportunities?
Reading Time: 8 minutes The term has been around for decades, and it trips off our tongues as easily as “no-till management” and “cover crops.” Yet one of the challenges, even for those in search of a silver bullet in crop management, is the constant evolution of the term “IPM.” Its meaning is rapidly evolving, and so are the […] Read more
Soy wins health claim
The label approval is seen as an important step toward increased Canadian consumption
Reading Time: 6 minutes The popular saying is that good things come in small packages, which exactly describes Canada in terms of its overall output as one of the world’s soybean producers. Because good things do come from Canada. In fact, they may even be great things, thanks to our capabilities at producing high-quality identity-preserved, non-GMO soybeans, as we […] Read more
Are farmers suffering from too much information?
With today’s big data, it sure would help to have those provincial crop advisers back on the team
Reading Time: 7 minutes While agriculture in Canada has been evolving in the past 10 to 15 years, there has also been a curious evolution in the quantity and the quality of information available to farmers. In the late 1990s, at least in Ontario, the governing Conservative Party began scaling back on what was referred to as “bricks and […] Read more
Pearce: Winter wheat’s challenges go beyond just the seeding
Reading Time: 3 minutes For the past five growing seasons, winter wheat has taken it on the chin in terms of its status as one of the Big Three crops in Eastern Canada. Compared to soybeans, which have seen a steady climb to the three million-acre mark in those five seasons, wheat has suffered from poor seeding conditions with […] Read more
Farming for profitability
Precision ag systems can take your ability to analyze profits way past yesterday’s cost-revenue calculations
Reading Time: 7 minutes It’s been the mantra of agricultural economists, bankers and even agronomists for the past 20 years. “Know your cost of production.” At every podium at every conference, you can almost guarantee the question is going to get asked. How can a farmer farm successfully without knowing their cost of production? We’re always told every successful […] Read more
New in soybean varieties
New options will help the crop continue expanding its value and range
Reading Time: 12 minutes Canadian soybean production has grown up in the past 30 years. It seems a distant memory now that in 1985, Ontario was still the only major producer in the country, topping the million-tonne mark that year, well above the average of 690,000 tonnes earlier that decade. One year later, Quebec joined the market, and five […] Read more
Maximize efficiency above all else
East of Montreal, Billy Beaudry knows he’s under pressure to choose the right corn technologies
Reading Time: 6 minutes Farming in Quebec typically calls to mind those long, narrow ribbons of land that run inland from the St. Lawrence River. But that’s not the reality that Billy Beaudry and his family face on their farm about a third of the way toward the U.S. border, on a plateau between the St. Lawrence and the […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
