Reading Time: 4 minutes Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research scientist Bruce Gossen says the 18-year study was boring, but its results weren’t. Gossen and his colleagues took a long-term look at the effects of cropping diversity and inputs at Scott, Sask., from 1996 to 2013, but they didn’t just evaluate yields. They also looked at disease, insect and weed […] Read more
Farm like Scrooge
A long-term study suggests that penny-pinching can actually help the bottom line
Agriculture Canada ups canola carryout forecast sharply
Reading Time: 3 minutes Winnipeg | CNS Canada – Canadian canola carryout stocks at the end of the current marketing year (2018/19) will be considerably larger than an earlier estimate, according to updated supply/demand tables from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, released on Oct. 19, 2018. Agriculture Canada’s market analysis branch forecast canola ending stocks for 2018/19 at 2.500 million […] Read more
Business risk management options for Canadian farmers in 2018
Government farm business risk programs are evolving, especially in Quebec
Reading Time: 7 minutes As farmers know well, risks to financial success in any year are many. Weather, crop and livestock health issues, market factors and spiking input costs are perennial threats, and they are all as large or larger than ever in 2018. It’s why business risk management (BRM) programs are so very important. Federally, AgriStability provides support […] Read more
Pest Patrol: Soybean cyst nematode in edible beans
#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA
Reading Time: 2 minutes Have you ever had a dry bean crop that looked healthy but resulted in disappointing yields? Have you seen stunted or yellowing patches, but could not identify the cause? If so, you may want to look for soybean cyst nematode (SCN). Researchers in Ontario and the U.S. have shown that SCN is not just a […] Read more
Pulse prices feel pressure from rising ending stocks
Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada – Increasing pulse ending stocks are going to continue to play into pulse crop prices in Canada, according to the latest update from Farm Credit Canada’s (FCC) ag economics team. “We’re still expected to see ending stocks increasing. So as we continue to see that ending stocks increase, that stock-to-use-ratio that we’d see […] Read more
Where are investments in Canadian agricultural research headed?
2018 has been a great year with agriculture attracting acclaim as an economic powerhouse in Canada. But is there enough money in research to score on the opportunity?
Reading Time: 6 minutes “Sunny today but with clouds on the horizon” is how Serge Buy describes Canadian government investment in agricultural research. “There was more willingness for the federal government to invest in budgets 2016 and 2017, and some of the provinces are following suit,” says Buy, who’s the CEO of the Agricultural Institute of Canada (AIC). “That’s […] 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 ‘Holy Grail’ in cereal technology
Can wheat and barley really be taught to act like pulses, and produce their own fertilizer?
Reading Time: 5 minutes A new research project funded by the Alberta Wheat Commission and the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission will try to answer a question that has bedevilled plant scientists for years: can cereal crops be made to fix their own nitrogen the way legumes do? The AWC is spending $100,000 to have Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientists […] Read more
Young and farming
The ag census says young people are flocking back to the farm. Are they really?
Reading Time: 8 minutes There’s been a lot of chatter about the new farmers coming back to the sector. Across the country, enrolment numbers have ballooned at ag colleges. Even the 2016 Census of Agriculture showed a real, albeit small, increase. Saskatchewan is no exception. In 2016, the number of farm operators under the age of 35 hit 9.7 […] Read more
B2B strategic partnering
For the Martin farm in Ontario, building connections with other businesses is a winning formula
Reading Time: 6 minutes At nine years old Quentin Martin became one of five siblings who were shareholders of their family’s Master Breeder pedigreed Holstein farm, which his parents incorporated in 1965. “They gave all of us common shares,” says Martin,“which meant at nine years old I was sitting at the table with the feed salesman and the banker […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
