Reading Time: 4 minutes It used to be that artificial intelligence was limited to the realms of science fiction and movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey or Terminator’s Skynet. Today, artificial intelligence is real — think Alexa or Google Home — and tools and applications putting it to use are emerging at a rapid clip in many fields, including […] Read more
Artificial intelligence
… the brave new world of how you’ll farm, and eat
A jolt for heavy trucks
In contrast to the farm sector, electrification is making rapid gains in heavy trucks
Reading Time: 6 minutes Over the past several years, whenever Country Guide has tracked progress toward electrification in ag equipment, we’ve seen a stop-and-go process with manufacturers showing several new concept models one year, followed by little if anything the next. The contrast with the heavy truck sector is striking. There, we’re seeing a consistent and rapid march toward […] Read more
If you’re not happy with your purchase
All three Prairie provinces have protection for farm equipment purchasers, but the provisions differ
Reading Time: 5 minutes If you’ve taken parts or equipment home but they’re not working as promised, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta all have farm implement acts providing for the dealer to repair or replace them. But while the three provinces have some similar protections, they also differ significantly. All deal with the sale, lease and lease-purchase of farm equipment […] Read more
Advanced soil sampling
It’s time to get excited about soil testing again… seriously!
Reading Time: 6 minutes In many ways, a soil test represents an aspect of farming that is necessary yet unfairly and inaccurately viewed with about as much anticipation as filing an income tax return. Despite the fact that soil tests provide invaluable information and a potential road map for adding value to future crop plans, there isn’t an overall […] Read more
The view from the driver’s seat
The grain storage and transportation system depends more than ever on truckers. Here’s how that looks from their side of the windshield
Reading Time: 5 minutes Discussions about Prairie grain transportation efficiency tend to focus on railways, railways — and railways. Often lost in the century-plus-old feud between farmers and the railroads is the connection between them — the truckers. The system can’t get along without them, and they’ve become even more important due to elevator and branch line closures. We […] Read more
If you can’t spray ’em, crush ’em
While there’s no single solution to herbicide resistance, the Harrington Seed Destructor may be part of the toolbox
Reading Time: 5 minutes Some of the most creative insights and practical solutions for battling herbicide-resistant weed control come from Australia. It was there, in 1996, that the world’s first documented case of glyphosate resistance was found in annual ryegrass, which is Australia’s No. 1 weed problem. As of January of this year, the Australian Glyphosate Sustainability Working Group […] Read more
The reason for Monosem
This European planter isn’t new, but the mindset behind it is grabbing more attention among producers looking to cut costs and boost performance
Reading Time: 5 minutes With the high cost of farmland, the focus for a growing number of producers these days is productivity. But this is productivity managed with an extremely sharp pencil. That helps explain the heightened interest in Monosem planters, because of their potential role in helping growers reduce their seed costs. Many growers have already attempted to […] Read more
Agrimetrix takes aim at exploding sprayer myths
Farmers today need to spray several times a year, and two former AAFC researchers have formed a company to help them get the product to the right place at the right time
Reading Time: 7 minutes If Tom Wolf is the face of agricultural spraying in Western Canada, then Brian Caldwell is the hands. The two co-owners of Agrimetrix, an agricultural spray research and training company based in Saskatoon, share an overlapping skillset, but they have carved distinctive individual niches. Wolf spends much of his time talking about spraying in a […] Read more
UAV regs changing – for the better
Transport Canada looks to streamline and standardize the rules for drone use
Reading Time: 5 minutes The growth in the functionality of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) over much of the past decade has been steady. From the early days when advisers, dealers, agronomists and laboratories purchased and used the units to derive valuable insights into crop performance to more recent sales of much simpler designs for hobby uses, UAVs have made […] Read more
Conventional thinking
Machinery manufacturers are offering European farmers new options for in-crop weed and pest control
Reading Time: 5 minutes Walking the 15 kilometres or so of aisles at Agritechnica in November, one trend was hard to miss. It was in the tillage segment, where the number of options and the sophistication of that technology is obviously on the rise. Efficiency has always been the driving force behind farm machinery evolution, but it’s clear that […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
