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
Pest Patrol: Soybean cyst nematode in edible beans
#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA
Benchmarking, grading, research needed to move lamb sector forward
Reading Time: 4 minutes Like a doctor delivering bad news to a patient, Martin Gooch gave it straight to the Ontario sheep sector: the sheep industry continues to be disjointed and inefficient, with a lack of benchmarks to define a successful farm. Like a good doctor, Gooch also delivered some optimism. “You could double production and have room for […] Read more
Researchers defining phosphorus movement in Ontario soils
4R strategy plays a key role in reducing phosphorous runoff
Reading Time: 3 minutes Three short huts with solar panels on them sprout in Bob McIntosh’s wheat field near St. Marys, Ont. Inside the huts are monitoring equipment that goes right to the tiles that systemically move water from his farm. His farm is one of six across Ontario with the monitoring equipment that allows University of Waterloo researchers to study […] Read more
Modular chicken loading means processor, farmer investment
Benefits include improved animal welfare and better workplace safety
Reading Time: 4 minutes Ontario will be joining most of the rest of Canada in moving to modular loading of chickens. But the change, mandated by Chicken Farmers of Ontario by 2024, will mean renovations to barns, some major, and investment by processors and transporters. Most chickens in the province are nabbed by chicken catchers in barns and carried to […] Read more
How much money is enough?
It’s happening on more farms. Is your working capital reserve dangerously low?
Reading Time: 4 minutes It’s no surprise that as farms get larger and more complicated, they need more working capital. There must be money available to handle large expenses, and to manage your way through cash-flow swings brought about by volatile commodity prices. Besides, in an era when it is so costly to grow or expand, it’s prudent to […] Read more
Last call for continuous soybean crops
Continuous soys are tough on the soil, tough on yields and tough on the pocketbook. So why do we still plant them?
Reading Time: 7 minutes Many years ago, Ross Daily, the television host of “This Business of Farming” spoke at a county-level federation of agriculture meeting, and in the course of his speech congratulated growers on their six-year rotations. The audience was frankly bewildered until Daily offered an explanation to clear the confusion. “You know what I’m talking about: soybeans-soybeans-soybeans-soybeans-soybeans, […] Read more
Are farmers suffering from too much information?
With today’s big data, it sure would help to have those provincial crop advisers back on the team
Reading Time: 7 minutes While agriculture in Canada has been evolving in the past 10 to 15 years, there has also been a curious evolution in the quantity and the quality of information available to farmers. In the late 1990s, at least in Ontario, the governing Conservative Party began scaling back on what was referred to as “bricks and […] Read more
The crop production wheel
Reading Time: 2 minutes Two years ago in the September edition of Country Guide, we ran a sidebar about a “complete systems” approach to production agriculture, including the depiction of a “production wheel.” The image comes from Don Lobb, an advocate for improving soil health and tile drainage. He created the guideline in a circular or wheel configuration, and […] Read more
Pest Patrol: OMAFRA’s Peter Johnson retires
A valued colleague, @wheatpete, goes on to the next chapter of his distinguished career
Reading Time: 3 minutes Whenever I mention the name Peter Johnson to someone in agriculture, it always gets a reaction, be it a smile, a shake of the head or a roll of the eyes. That’s the price you pay for being passionate, unafraid to share an opinion and continually challenging the industry to step up their game. Not […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
