Reading Time: 7 minutes One of my first jobs was working as a mechanic’s helper at a farm equipment dealership in the late 1970s. Among my duties was using an F-250 Ford pickup and gooseneck deck trailer to pick up and deliver equipment. I even recall delivering a combine on that unit. Granted, it was a smaller, older machine […] Read more
Summer Series: Old machines,new technology
[Change Management] Can retrofit kits mean it’s cheaper and smarter to say no to trading in?
‘Sky-high’ technology takes to new heights
Hmmm… If drones are good, would a nanosatellite be even better?
Reading Time: 6 minutes With every piece of equipment and every line of computer software that the precision ag sector creates, farmers are playing catch-up. Yes, it’s exciting to learn about new technology and the endless possibilities around the corner, but in the real world, that corner is still out of sight. The requirements for huge amounts of data […] Read more
Robotic weed management takes to the fields
The potential for cost savings and precise control is enormous
Reading Time: 6 minutes Extraordinary. Revolutionary. Game-changing. Those are just some of the adjectives being used to describe robotic weed management, a technology that is generating considerable anticipation based on the initial research into its benefits in a row-crop environment. The list of key players and systems includes WEEDit, Xarvio, Bosch, Agrifac and Einböck. And the potential is large […] Read more
How to protect yourself online
Cybercriminals used to go after big business. Now they know you’re easier to hit
Reading Time: 4 minutes The internet has been a boon to farm businesses. Whether it’s ordering farm supplies online, hosting an online store, problem solving, communicating with the farm team and other farmers, accessing detailed weather forecasts or marketing info, the list of the ways we rely on the internet every day is long. Unfortunately, as the internet has […] Read more
The open source farmer
For Dorn and Sarah Cox, building an ag internet will bring the power back in farmer’s hands
Reading Time: 7 minutes About 10 years ago, New Hampshire farmer Dorn Cox was thinking how agriculture will need new ways of tackling such huge challenges as climate change, biodiversity loss and depleted agricultural soils. In the past, the collaborative approach had always saved agriculture. Farmers have pooled their ideas, shared their results and found big solutions much faster […] Read more
Farming in 2030: Big data
The last time there was a change this big in farming, it was mechanization. The question is: are you open to exploring how it can work for you?
Reading Time: 5 minutes If you’ve got a cell phone anywhere close to you as you read this, you’re part of the data revolution in agriculture, whether you realize it or not, and whether you want to be or not. That’s probably a good thing. Certainly, the potential benefits are amazing. “The smartphone is going to be one of […] Read more
Real blockchain payoffs
Sure, a lot of what you hear about blockchain technology is hype. But there are also very real pathways to higher net returns
Reading Time: 10 minutes By now, we’ve all heard about the new kid on the ag tech block, known as blockchain. But we’re far from understanding what the use of blockchain is going to mean at the farm level. What benefits will it provide? Will its chain-of-custody and traceability for identity-preserved (IP) crops, including seed, keep Canada competitive? Is […] Read more
‘Learn to discern’ in the information age
Are you sure you’re wise enough to know what you can believe on the internet, and what you shouldn’t?
Reading Time: 5 minutes We are living in the Information Age. We’ve created more information in the past few years than in all of human history, says neuroscientist Dr. Daniel Levitin in his book, A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age. In theory, the internet puts all this great material at our fingertips, but the […] Read more
Where it’s warm
AGCO’s GSI aims to make grain storage safer with on-farm medical technology
Reading Time: 5 minutes Here in the Great White North, we love to gripe about winter. But one of the advantages of our cold season is that it’s much easier and safer to store grain here than in parts of the world that have year-round warmth, where preventing spoilage of stored grain remains a challenge. I can remember hearing […] Read more
A jolt for heavy trucks
In contrast to the farm sector, electrification is making rapid gains in heavy trucks
Reading Time: 6 minutes Over the past several years, whenever Country Guide has tracked progress toward electrification in ag equipment, we’ve seen a stop-and-go process with manufacturers showing several new concept models one year, followed by little if anything the next. The contrast with the heavy truck sector is striking. There, we’re seeing a consistent and rapid march toward […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
