Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg/Toronto | Reuters — Canada’s plan to price carbon emissions may weaken the farm sector in one of the biggest grain-shipping countries, raising farmers’ costs and discouraging investment in fertilizer production, industry groups say. Ottawa this month promised a price on carbon emissions by 2018, and will let provinces choose a tax or cap-and-trade system. […] Read more
Carbon price worries farmers, fertilizer makers
What’s the deal with soil compaction?
Other countries are tackling compaction head on. Here, there’s hardly a whisper
Reading Time: 7 minutes Compaction has somehow become one of those topics that gets scooped up off the back-burner from time to time. It gets discussed and sometimes it even gets preached about, and then it fades away again until next time. It isn’t a new topic. Nor is it particularly controversial. Everyone agrees that compaction causes damage to […] Read more
Lemken gets strategic
German company puts its focus on building a wider range of machinery for Canadian farms
Reading Time: 4 minutes Missouri may call itself the “Show Me” state, but in my experience, farmers demonstrate more of that “prove it to me” trait more than any other group — and for good reason. Over the decades they’ve heard machinery manufacturers make a lot of claims about the capabilities of their machines. Most of the claims turn […] Read more
A healthier soil test
Is it time to start investing in the Solvita soil test for your farm?
Reading Time: 6 minutes It’s a curious trend. “Soil health” is one of the great buzz phrases of modern agriculture. Admittedly, it’s just words to some, yet for a dedicated and growing number of producers, it’s a primary goal. Yet if you ask the average farmer if they test their soil once every three years, as recommended, the answer […] Read more
Kubota to buy equipment maker Great Plains
Reading Time: 2 minutes Japanese farm, construction, yard and landscaping equipment maker Kubota is set to expand its share in several of those sectors with a deal for Kansas equipment firm Great Plains Manufacturing. Kubota, which has had a strategic alliance with Great Plains for implements in the U.S. since 2007, announced Friday it will buy 100 per cent […] Read more
A new look at 30-inch rows for soybeans
If you think the case is closed on 30-inch rows, get ready to think again
Reading Time: 7 minutes Soybean growers near the Ontario-Quebec border have tested wide rows, and some have even adopted them already as a way of managing white mould pressure. The disease thrives here. even though agronomists can’t exactly say why. But there’s also more to the 30-inch debate than just mould control. Based in the eastern end of the […] Read more
Record-low summerfallow expected
Reading Time: < 1 minute CNS Canada — Changing farm practices and moving world markets over the years have seen shifts in the makeup of the crops grown in Canada — but the most noticeable change in the past three decades may be the amount of land seeded to nothing. Heading into the 2016 growing season, Canadian farmers say they […] Read more
No till goes dairy farming
In many ways, it’s been an easy transition for this dairy family
Reading Time: 6 minutes The Loewiths don’t describe themselves as a crop innovators, but they’re certainly not hesitant to glean advice from others and, with some careful consideration, adapt a practice or an approach to the conditions on their farm. So, while the move to no till in a dairy operation might seem a little different to some, with […] Read more
Where do you cut when you have to cut costs?
As crop prices drop, growers have a new focus on cost containment. Weed control is always a big bill, so it’s only natural this gets a hard look — but taking the wrong steps could cost you money
Reading Time: 4 minutes High crop prices always make the decision to apply crop protection products relatively easy. Just a few years ago, when canola was north of $700 per tonne and wheat was sitting near $500 per tonne, the question was never “Should I spray?” it was “Why wouldn’t I spray?” After all, at those prices if you […] Read more
We need to get our herbicide resistance response right
Dealing with what's become a global problem could end up being one of Canada's key competitive advantages as a grain-exporting nation
Reading Time: 7 minutes In Australia, the problem is so bad growers are catching chaff with mechanical seed destructors or burning it in windrows in order to destroy weed seeds. In the U.S. Cotton Belt, the unthinkable has happened and crews walk through fields, hand-roguing Palmer amaranth at $150 per acre. In Europe, they’re resorting to more and more […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
