Reading Time: 6 minutes With the competition heating up among farmers trying to sell their grain, and also among the elevators trying to buy it, relationship building between buyers and sellers has never been more important to business success for grain and oilseed producers. It’s why dropping in to say a friendly hello every few months is no longer […] Read more
It’s buyer’s choice when it comes to your grain
Getting and keeping your farm on your elevator's 'first-call' list is harder than ever
The malting lottery continues
Having barley accepted for malting has never been a sure thing, and that’s still the case following changes to the marketing system
Reading Time: 4 minutes Malting barley can be one of the most profitable crops in Western Canada — if you can grow it, and if you can sell it. That’s not necessarily easy. Many farmers try — it’s estimated that 80 per cent of the barley sown in Western Canada is seeded to malting varieties. But only about 20 […] Read more
The chicken and egg scenario of new barley varieties
Maltsters will buy new barley varieties if farmers will grow them. Farmers will grow them if maltsters will buy them
Reading Time: 6 minutes When ordering a beer these days, your choice is no longer just a couple of same-tasting brands from big national or international breweries. North Americans have developed a taste for “craft” beers from an ever-expanding list of smaller breweries. Different beers need different malts, which creates a demand for different varieties of malting barley. But […] Read more
Our farmland for sale
The West is clamping down on foreign ownership of farmland, and even in Ontario, where there are few controls, overseas purchases are much lower than the rumour mill says
Reading Time: 5 minutes Almost every rural coffee shop has its own version of the same story. Foreigners are buying up Canadian farmland and they’re making land prices soar beyond the reach of local farmers as a result. But is it true? Maybe. But not likely. In fact, according to the people with their fingers on the pulse, such […] Read more
Flax on the road to recovery in a post-Triffid world
Flax is back now that a GM variety is flushed out of the system, but there’s new competition from the former Soviet Union
Reading Time: 5 minutes After six years, the “Day of the Triffids” appears to be ending for Canada’s flaxseed industry. Triffid is a genetically modified variety of flax that was rather unfortunately named after the creatures in The Day of the Triffids, a 1951 novel about carnivorous plants bioengineered in the USSR that escape and blind people with their […] Read more
An open market is still a work in progress
A truly open market requires transparency of information, but the veil is still being lifted
Reading Time: 5 minutes When the Canadian Wheat Board lost its monopoly in 2012, Blair Rutter predicted that it would take 10 years to adjust to an open market system. “Moving from a centrally planned system to a market economy, it takes a while,” the executive director at the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association said in an interview. “We […] Read more
Does Western Canada still need a grain transportation co-ordinator?
The answer may be no, but there’s still a need for improved logistics between railways and grain companies
Reading Time: 4 minutes It’s been two years since the start of the infamous grain transportation backlog of 2013-14, but there’s still debate about whether a new organization should take over the former Canadian Wheat Board’s role as a transportation co-ordinator. “Most people like to focus on ’13-14 and say, ‘Look at the problems we created without the single […] Read more
Agriculture classes on university campuses continue to grow
It isn’t only a robust farm economy that’s driving post-secondary ag education, but job opportunities and heavy recruitment too
Reading Time: 5 minutes The story is the same across the country. “Our application numbers in all of our programs are up,” says Joe Varamo, manager of academic programs for Ontario Agricultural College, Canada’s largest ag university, where total ag enrolment has climbed to 2,600, up from 2,000 just four years ago. “We’ve gone from accepting approximately 450 students […] Read more
To sample, or not to sample (soil). Who’s right?
Some of your neighbours have stopped soil sampling. Others are sampling more than ever.
Reading Time: 5 minutes In any year, at most 10 per cent of the fields are soil sampled,” says Tom Jensen, a director in the North American program of the International Plant Nutrition Institute. “Some people say 20 per cent of farmers do some soil testing, but they may only do it every couple to three years.” Farm consolidation […] Read more
Is the renewed interest in oats, barley and flax just a blip?
Acreage may be up in barley, oats and flaxseed, but that doesn’t mean there’s a long-term resurgence of interest in those crops
Reading Time: 7 minutes The trend to lower acreages of barley, oats and flaxseed in recent years has largely reflected the increased profitability in alternative grains and oilseeds, and canola in particular. As Western Canada’s darling, canola production crested at nearly 18 million tonnes in 2013, and even more is being called for with the Canola Council of Canada’s […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
