Reading Time: 2 minutes Farmers continue to sign up for an Ontario co-operative that will pay them for their corn stover and wheat straw. Brian Cofell, general manager of the Cellulosic Sugar Producers Co-operative (CSPC) says that the co-op has about 40 per cent of the acres committed that it needs by next fall, when it plans to harvest […] Read more
Cellulosic sugars co-op offer improves, hosting baling demos
First demonstration takes place on Nov. 14 in Watford, Ont.
Big trends drive diverging high and low income food interests
Panel discussed the future of food and the widening disconnect between growers and consumers
Reading Time: 3 minutes There are larger issues driving food trends that should give farmers opportunities to open conversations with people in the food movement. The challenge is starting that conversation. Jayson Lusk, the head of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University, told the George Morris AgriFood Policy Lecture on the future of food that influencers are […] Read more
The Catch-22 of oat production
Tests in central Alberta yield some useful information on N rates and the effectiveness of plant growth regulators
Reading Time: 4 minutes Linda Hall has a soft spot for the humble oat, mainly because she doesn’t think it’s really all that humble. “Milling oats are a high-value crop,” Hall says. “We’re seeing companies like Richardson buying up oat milling capacity, so the markets are there if we can grow the right kind of oat.” It all depends […] Read more
Competing with Russian wheat
Newer wheat classes provide an opportunity to serve Mexican markets that don’t need CWRS
Reading Time: 3 minutes Western Canadian wheat classes such as Canada Prairie Spring Red (CPSR) and the new Canada Northern Hard Red (CNHR) have recently been attracting attention from Mexican millers to meet their end-uses. Senior managers from Grupo Trimex, Mexico’s largest milling company and a customer of CWRS, attended a one-week technical exchange at the Canadian International Grains […] Read more
U.S. women own it
When we think ‘farmer,’ we often also think ‘male.’ Because it’s men who own the farmland, right?
Reading Time: 5 minutes The truth of farmland ownership is changing, especially the picture of who owns farmland in the United States, where the numbers are a bit clearer than here in Canada, and where the shift has been underway for decades. The questions are simple enough: How many women own farmland in the U.S.? What are the parameters […] Read more
From hogs to hops
Quebec farm family focuses on supplying local markets with a variety of hops
Reading Time: 3 minutes When Francis Gagné’s family decided to get out of hog production, it prompted the St. Bernard, Que. farmers to go through a process to decide how it wanted to diversify. The family had some flexibility. It continued to grow traditional cash crops and with space for 50,000 broilers, there was cash flow. Gagné says they […] Read more
Right from the farm
Farmer-owned Capricorn Bay bridges the planter-drill divide
Reading Time: 4 minutes The Prince family runs a large-scale family farm in southwestern Manitoba, where for years they have wished for a single, effective piece of seeding equipment that they could use for all of their crops. Now, they’ve turned that dream into a market-ready implement and a fledgling equipment brand. Their on-farm creation, the PPS planter, can […] Read more
New cereal varieties for Eastern Canada
There’s only a handful of new varieties for planting this fall, but they’re worth a hard look
Reading Time: 2 minutes Increased winter wheat acres are good for Eastern Canada, not only because of crop diversity and longer rotations, but as a contributor to overall soil health. Despite the challenges of fall planting, farmers are clearly deciding there’s real value in maintaining wheat acres: the message is definitely getting through. Yet other, more immediate concerns are […] Read more
Africa feeding Africa
While North America’s farmers pin their career hopes on the need to feed a hungry Africa, that continent’s farmers are making plans of their own
Reading Time: 5 minutes A core belief in North American agriculture is that our farmers must produce ever more food if we are to have any hope of feeding the world, particularly areas like Africa where the population is growing so rapidly. The numbers are indeed staggering. According to the Population Reference Bureau, Africa’s population will hit 2.5 billion […] Read more
Cutting down on the salt
Bakers at Cigi are showing international customers how to bake bread with less sodium
Reading Time: 3 minutes The bakers at the Canadian International Grains Institute (Cigi) are hearing the same message as the rest of us: Cut down on the salt. “The aim of Cigi’s pilot bakery is to replicate what the industry does,” says Yvonne Supeene, head of baking technology. “We reduced the salt level in all bread formulations, and in […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
