Reading Time: 5 minutes The growth in the functionality of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) over much of the past decade has been steady. From the early days when advisers, dealers, agronomists and laboratories purchased and used the units to derive valuable insights into crop performance to more recent sales of much simpler designs for hobby uses, UAVs have made […] Read more
UAV regs changing – for the better
Transport Canada looks to streamline and standardize the rules for drone use
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Agriculture is constantly moving the yardsticks, which means there’s always a new business opportunity on the horizon. So, asks Rob Saik, founder of Agri-Trend: What are you waiting for?
Reading Time: 7 minutes This fall Country Guide chatted with Rob Saik founder and CEO of Agri-Trend as the innovative coaching company celebrates 20 years in business. He talked about the struggles of being and staying ahead of the innovation curve, the stumbles and wins, and what it was like to sell Agri-Trend to Trimble, the U.S. precision agriculture […] Read more
Drones have their limitations
Aerial images provide useful information, but an aircraft might be a better option for larger farms
Reading Time: 4 minutes Are drones the next big thing in scouting technology, or the latest toy that will be forgotten in a few years? Greg Adelman, owner of Crop Command Agronomy at Southey, Sask., says UAVs provide researchers with a great tool for assessing small research plots, but when it’s necessary to cover thousands of acres, they can’t […] Read more
The ‘precise’ in precision agriculture
Making cost-of-production decisions is possible using available software
Reading Time: 8 minutes In the world of precision agriculture, each new growing season seems to bring a fresh batch of brand new technologies, complete with upgrades to existing systems. No question, it can be a challenge just to keep up with the variety and capability of some of these innovations, let alone figuring out which might have the […] Read more
UAVs and crop scouting. Are they worth it?
Seven organizations supported a two-year study on whether drones can provide practical benefits to farmers
Reading Time: 5 minutes When Chris Neeser began to design a research project on the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in crop scouting, he wondered if anyone would be willing to fund it. “This was different from a typical research project,” says Neeser, a research scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry’s Crop Diversification Centre, South, in Brooks. “There […] Read more
Not just a driverless tractor, but no tractor at all
A global launch at Ag in Motion could change the way you farm
Reading Time: 4 minutes While farmers have been waiting impatiently for equipment designers to commercialize the driverless tractor, Prairie inventor and entrepreneur Norbert Beaujot has found a way to ditch the tractor altogether. And he’s rolling it out for the first time in July 18 to 20 at Ag in Motion (AIM), Western Canada’s outdoor farm show now in […] Read more
A Genius in the tractor cab
This systems supplier is integrating cutting-edge automotive safety systems into off-road equipment cabs
Reading Time: 4 minutes A few years ago I had the pleasure of interviewing the industrial designer who styled the cab and body of the first Challenger 65 belted ag tractors, which were then part of the Caterpillar brand before coming under AGCO ownership. Before coming to Cat, the designer had spent several years working for General Motors and […] Read more
Seeding smartphone tips
Cellphones have been dubbed “smartphones” but sometimes the way folks are addicted to them causes dumb problems. I’ve read three articles that suggest that cellphones are creating isolation, poorer communication and less robust relationships. Stress rises when there is a million-dollar crop to get in the ground, excess moisture, and too many jobs for the[...]
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Editor’s Note: How many farmers do we really need?
Probably we don’t ‘need’ nearly as many farmers as we have today, but only if you ignore the way that farmers’ business skills are transforming the world of agriculture
Reading Time: 2 minutes There are some three million truck drivers in the U.S. today, and another 200,000 in Canada. Except, their jobs depend on their employers not using the self-driving technology that is already in use on farms all across North America. While we’re all fixated on all the disruptions that Donald Trump is creating, most of us[...]
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Corn yields still on the rise
Check out the numbers when you use interpolated data to even out our year-by-year weather swings
Reading Time: 5 minutes What if we could peer into the future and catch a glimpse of where our agriculture is heading? How would such a view shape the development of plant breeding and advances in technology, and maybe even the impact on farmers? A University of Guelph PhD student is working to develop a new yield model, first[...]
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A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
