Reading Time: < 1 minute Country Guide had the opportunity to speak with Terry Daynard, an associate at Agri-Food Technologies at the recent AGM of the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA). He describes how public interest and activism for sustainable agriculture and the environment have moved modern companies toward sustainability. Super-chain stores also play a major role, as the […] Read more
Consumers play major role in sustainable agriculture
Production efficiencies help the environment
Corn losing the acreage battle
Across the east, farmers like Elliot Lowry are dropping corn from their 2014 plans
Reading Time: 5 minutes Be prepared to see noticeably less corn in Canada’s cornbelt next year as farmers in southern Ontario and Quebec continue to switch acres to soybeans. The 2011 federal Census of Agriculture documented a 33 per cent jump since 2006 in the number of acres farmers are planting to soybeans, and it isn’t at all hard […] Read more
Not dead yet
Reading Time: 5 minutes Speculation about the impending death of Winnipeg canola futures misses the mark, industry watchers say Winnipeg’s canola futures have plenty of life left, say experts who refute any predictions about the inevitability of a death watch for the market. A year ago, record open interest was being set in the canola market, but when June 2013 […] Read more
Attack on seedling diseases
Researchers are gaining the upper hand in a battle that is much more complex than anyone expected
Reading Time: 6 minutes When it comes to production problems in soybeans, growers have grown used to hearing that with soybean cyst nematode, once you’ve got it, it’s in your fields to stay. Only diverse rotations and SCN-resistant varieties can reduce the damage to future crops. But nematodes are far from the only threat. Surveys in the U.S. have […] Read more
Time to grow
With precision agriculture finally ready to fulfil its promise, should you look to expand even faster? The answer depends on whether you have the time
Reading Time: 5 minutes The predictions came fast and furious when relatively accurate GPS units first made their debut outside the military a decade ago. In essentially the twinkling of an eye, we were told, precision agriculture would begin slashing our use of inputs and we would apply only what we needed where it was needed, with medical precision. […] Read morePrecision Farming: Best of both worlds
Variable-rate planting catches on as growers strive to make every seed count with their costly top-flight genetics
Reading Time: 3 minutes Precision agriculture may have got off to a patchy start in Eastern Canada, but one use that is generating a lot of excitement right now is variable-rate seeding. Indeed, the technology to have row units turn on and off automatically seems to have come at exactly the right time, Higher-priced corn seed may be worth […] Read moreIn with smart farming
So you think you know what “precision” farming means? You’re probably selling the technology short. Equipment makers around the world are set to launch tools that will let farmers do things we have never, ever been able to do before
Reading Time: 5 minutes A mere decade ago, to be on the cutting edge of precision farming meant using a GPS receiver equipped with a light bar guidance system to help you steer a straight line. That receiver relied on the standard WAAS signal with its one-metre accuracy, a technological breakthrough. Today, that equipment no longer fits into anyone’s […] Read morePrecision Farming: Finding the profit
Reading Time: 3 minutes There’s no question that precision farming technology works. Yield monitors do monitor yields. GPS does pinpoint your location, and computer programs do combine the two to produce multi-coloured, ultra-accurate yield maps. For most farmers, however, the question isn’t whether the technology works. It’s whether it pays. At last, there’s more evidence that it makes economic […] Read more
Sell it now
When you’ve got equipment to move, follow these rules to sell it fast and generate the best net outcome for you and your farm
Reading Time: 4 minutes We all love that new-cab smell. As great as it feels to take a new farm machine home, however, one thing is inevitable. Some day you’ll have to figure out how to get rid of it. That raises the question, how and when should you sell equipment after you retire or cease farming operations? It […] Read moreCutting Edge
Reading Time: 8 minutes In September 2008, Mark Torchia found himself in an operating theatre at the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic, holding his breath. The Winnipeg-based professor, researcher and medical device specialist was about to see the result of several years of hard work by himself and a team with members from the St. Boniface General Hospital, the University of […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
