Reading Time: 3 minutes With recommendations in hand, the Ontario government plans to clear a path for the use of two soon-to-be-former University of Guelph ag campuses as new community-backed ag schools. The province on Friday laid out its response to last month’s recommendations from its appointed facilitators, Lyle Vanclief and Marc Godbout, on the future of Guelph’s Kemptville […] Read more
Ont. to seek community ownership for ex-Guelph ag campuses
The changing face of winter
Winter is getting shorter, and this Ontario study found the growing season is four weeks longer
Reading Time: 3 minutes Instead of calling it climate change, maybe the phrase should be “winter change.” For the last six years, Trevor Dickinson, professor emeritus and a team from the University of Guelph have been studying temperature records from across Ontario, most of which date back 70 years, with some as old as 145 years, and their big […] Read more
What students need for future success as farmers
Top ag educators tell us the good and the not so good they see in Canada’s next generation of farm hopefuls
Reading Time: 7 minutes The future stretches and sways like a Prairie grain field, endless and heavy with possibilities. Like storm clouds, though, threats and risks also gather. What strengths and skills will farmers need to succeed in the future we’re rushing toward? With the turnover between generations accelerating, it’s a question that is coming squarely into play on […] Read more
Farm debt ratio in Canada could create an agricultural ‘bust’
Will history repeat itself, with a sell-off fuelled by farm debt?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Are we heading into another bust in agriculture, as happened in the late 1920s and in the 1980s? This is the fear of some farmers, and of some agricultural economists too. George Brinkman, professor emeritus at the University of Guelph, believes Canadian farmers are seriously over-leveraged and that there simply is not enough farm income […] Read more
When it comes to crop rotation planning, there’s an app for that
#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA
Reading Time: < 1 minute Crop prices are certainly more bearish now than they have been during the past two seasons, and because of this some farmers will question whether they should tweak their cropping rotation in the short term or stay the course. Now there is a smartphone app called “Cash Cropper” that will help you to evaluate: The […] Read more
Tufted vetch takes off
Tufted vetch not a new weed, just a different weed challenge
Reading Time: 3 minutes The battle with weeds just never seems to end, and now, as if resistant weeds, dandelions or Eastern black nightshade don’t provide enough challenges, there’s some concern that tufted vetch will be a growing issue for an increasing number of farmers. To be fair, Canada fleabane, giant ragweed and common ragweed are still the “Big […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
