Reading Time: 6 minutes Whether it’s through the longer days of spring and summer in northwestern Ontario or the darker nights that mark the passage of winter, Kim Jo Bliss puts a lot into every hour of every day. A full-time farmer, manager of the Emo Agricultural Research Station, a passionate advocate for farming, and a mentor for young […] Read more
About the northwest
To this farmer, northwestern Ontario offers loads of advantages over the hustle of the southwest
Prairie corn: Agronomics and economics
A four-year project in Manitoba has some notable findings on tillage economics and the reliability of heat unit ratings
Reading Time: 8 minutes As Prairie farmers consider growing some of the shorter-season corn hybrids coming onto the market, they still have questions whether they should even risk trying them, and which hybrids have the best chance of success. After completing three years of the four-year Corn Agronomy Project, researchers are beginning to provide a few answers — and […] Read more
New in corn hybrids for Eastern Canada
2018 is bringing a host of new options for growers in the east
Reading Time: 14 minutes In the history books, 2017 will go down as a tale of two extremes. In parts of Eastern Canada, there was flooding while drought in the U.S. Great Plains reached north into Canada. And in between, growing conditions were anything up to and including perfect. So what’s in the cards for 2018? Few decisions are […] Read more
Determining your true break even point
What market price do you need to break even? The answer depends not just on your costs, but your goals
Reading Time: 6 minutes Every winter, talk turns to production costs, with a focus on how to get your break-even price even lower. But what is your break-even? Most of us believe it’s a reasonably simple figure to calculate: just divide your yield by your expenses, including the cost of seed, fuel, fertilizer, herbicide and fungicide applications, a possible […] Read more
Watch those corn prices
Sometimes it seems prices are stuck in neutral. But keep your eyes open. Global demand is enormous, and shocks can emerge overnight
Reading Time: 5 minutes Corn is a brilliant crop to grow. Its productivity is amazing, with a planting season here in North America that starts in February in Texas and ends in June somewhere in Canada. With genetics that fight off all kinds of pests, it’s almost like there’s an explosion in the field as the crop heads into […] Read more
Improving nature
Corn and the environment can work hand-in-hand, and thanks to our farmers, in many cases, they already do
Reading Time: 6 minutes Every harvest season, word spreads quickly about yield. And happily, that trend line is up, with growers taking off phenomenal yields whenever the weather is halfway co-operative. But can today’s yields co-exist with a healthy environment? It’s a question that is getting asked more and more. And for the most part, it seems, the answer […] Read more
Corn silage moves west
The prospect of more tons per acre and fewer worries about harvest weather is prompting some cattle producers to park the baler
Reading Time: 6 minutes High land prices and persistent problems with haying weather in Western Canada are prompting more cattle producers to consider corn silage. Acreage has increased steadily in for the past five years, especially in Alberta where producers seeded 110,000 acres of silage corn in 2016, up from 70,000 acres in 2012. “New genetics have made corn […] Read more
Taming bearish corn markets
We’re back to the corn prices we saw before the great ethanol boom, but weather is always a wild card
Reading Time: 5 minutes The 2016 growing season in the United States has been excellent for corn production, and it’s making distant memories of the 2012 drought that reduced U.S. corn yields and sent prices into the stratosphere. Such a severe drought doesn’t happen very often. At that time it drove corn futures to an all-time high of $8.49 […] Read more
What’s new in corn hybrids
More and more hybrids specifically targeted at the West
Reading Time: 4 minutes Across much of Western Canada, corn is using the impressive results of the last five years as a springboard to become a go-to crop on even more farms. So despite this year’s pricing worries, and despite all the talk of a potential over-supply of the crop, it’s a choice that more growers are loyal to. […] Read more
Corn crops point their compass north
What do climate change and western corn share? “Plenty,” says Jeff Rubin
Reading Time: 5 minutes Jeff Rubin is former chief economist for CIBC World Markets, now a bestselling author, and he believes a warmer climate will result in a longer growing season and more heat units on the Canadian Prairies. This, he suggests, could turn the region into the new North American Corn Belt as production inevitably creeps northward. “The […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
