Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — The U.S. Agriculture Department on Tuesday lifted restrictions on imports of poultry and poultry products from Ontario in the latest sign the farm sector is starting to recover from a severe outbreak of bird flu. USDA limited imports from Ontario in April after a highly pathogenic (“high-path”) strain of H5N2 avian flu was […] Read more
U.S. ends avian flu-related limits on Ont. poultry
Is the sky the limit for aerial spray applicators?
Caught between rigid government regulations and undependable farm demand, these aerial applicators wonder about their future
Reading Time: 6 minutes We all look when we hear them. The sound of an airplane or helicopter sprayer is as distinctive as it is enticing. With an airplane, there’s that telltale roar of its high-powered engine and the pitch-shifting Doppler-effect. With a helicopter, there’s the unmistakable vibration stirring the air as it races from one end of a […] Read more
When being organic isn’t enough
Their consumers don’t just want organic, says Martin de Groot. They want animal welfare, cow comfort, energy self-sufficiency… and they want to see it all in action
Reading Time: 5 minutes With the milk from their 60-cow, mostly Holstein herd, Martin de Groot, his wife Ineke Booy and their family make their Mapleton’s Organic line of ice creams and fresh and frozen yoghurts in their on-farm dairy at Moorefield, Ont., shipping their winter surplus through Harmony Organic Dairy Products. What they sell is much more, however, […] Read more
Save Ontario farmers, save farmland in the process
10 years later, was setting up the Ontario’s Greenbelt worth the pain? More farmers are saying yes
Reading Time: 7 minutes Rapidly rising populations, sprawling cities, shrinking farmland, and the feared effects of climate change prompted the Ontario government to create its Greenbelt around Toronto 10 years ago, with the goal of protecting some of the nation’s top agricultural land from development and fragmentation. After a decade, it seems it may be working. The greenbelt approach […] Read more
Ont. books drop in bee death ‘incidents’ at planting
Reading Time: 3 minutes Early data from federal pesticide regulators appear to suggest Ontario’s bee yards are moving past a spell of unusually high death losses seen around the 2012 and 2013 planting seasons. Combining the numbers of acute honey bee mortality “incidents” by bee yard in Ontario in the 2015 pre-planting and planting periods, up to June 11, Health Canada’s […] Read more
Some timetables loosen as Ont. neonic limits become law
Reading Time: 3 minutes Ontario’s corn and soybean growers and seed dealers will have slightly more time to manage some of their new duties as the province’s limits on neonicotinoid pesticides become legally binding. Ontario’s environment ministry on Tuesday announced its new provincial regulations — with a handful of changes from the draft legislation first published in March — […] Read more
Best practices for direct farm marketing and five things you need to avoid
Once you’ve got your value-added product or service ready to go, the hard part’s done, right?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Not so fast. Chances are you are going to need to work hard to build product awareness. The experts agree you need a plan for how you’re going to let your potential customers know why they’re going to want to do business with you. The marketing plan is a vital part of your business plan […] Read more
Sainfoin: a new forage legume for Ontario livestock producers
Its non-bloating qualities make it a perfect companion to long-standing favourites, or it works well on its own
Reading Time: 4 minutes Mention the term “forage legume” in Eastern Canada, and just about any producer will mention alfalfa or clover. Livestock producers can likely name off another 10 or 12 species, like birdsfoot trefoil, alsike, timothy, orchardgrass or meadow bromegrass. But few will mention sainfoin, well-known in Western Canada but a relative newcomer to Ontario and Quebec. […] Read more
Pest Patrol: Why are stink bugs in Ontario?
Stink bug damage found on two apple farms near Hamilton and Waterdown
Reading Time: 2 minutes Question: A couple of years ago there was a lot of talk about a new invasive insect, some sort of stink bug. I was told that it could take a few years before this insect reached populations that would negatively affect crops. What are populations of this insect doing in Ontario? For our answer, I […] Read more
One Ontario family’s joint path to farm succession
“Succession planning here is like hitting a moving target,” says Jim McGregor, but it’s also the family’s greatest opportunity
Reading Time: 8 minutes A mile from the Ottawa River, the McGregor family has lived and farmed, and they have loved and built for five generations, to the point where their produce business has mushroomed to 15 stands, a pick-your-own business and four farmers’ markets. Theirs is a story about embracing change, and about how, in the midst of […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
