Reading Time: 5 minutes Ottawa has long been in the business of trying to fix the problem of transporting Prairie grain to the west coast by rail. Yet the issues don’t get solved. “None of the policies introduced by Raitt or Ritz did anything to deal with the surge,” University of Manitoba’s Barry Prentice says. “Worse, they have done […] Read more
Could containers be the answer to the West’s grain shipping woes?
A containerized grain supply chain would enhance competition, says University of Manitoba economist
Is your soil lacking phosphorous? How to diagnose nutrient deficiency
Phosphorus deficiency is hard to identify and often goes unnoticed — even when significant yield loss can be occurring. Will an extra 20 lbs./ac. of phosphate pay off?
Reading Time: 7 minutes Soil phosphorus levels are critically low in more and more fields. These fields may no longer provide enough phosphorus for crops to reach their yield potential, which means the solution to yield stagnation — on some fields, at least — could be plain old boring phosphate. Canola takes up around 1.5 pounds of phosphate per […] Read more
Keeping up with the high cost of farm living
When farmers have more, they spend more. The question is, can farm families stop spending if they have less?
Reading Time: 7 minutes Maybe the biggest surprise is that the numbers aren’t all that surprising. Researchers at the University of Illinois have found the average amount of family living expendables skyrocketed from about $53,000 per farm in 2004 to $81,000 in 2013. After starting at $84 per acre, living costs jumped in that one decade to $121 per […] Read more
The new cattle ranch
How different are today’s startup cattle operations?
Reading Time: 7 minutes UPDATE, Feb. 13, 2016: Iain Stables is to appear in Provincial Court in Saskatoon on April 14, 2016, facing 29 criminal charges relating to missing farm equipment and machinery RCMP reported found on a rural property south of Delisle, Sask. Click here for more details on the charges. The allegations have yet to be proven in court and […] Read more
A woman’s place
Agriculture used to be a man’s world, at least in North America. But visit any agriculture college across the country and you’ll see that the times have already changed
Reading Time: 7 minutes At the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Agriculture, Dean Mary Buhr doesn’t spend much time fretting over whether women are being accepted in the agriculture industry. Long gone are the days when female students were seen as a novelty or as brave trailblazers. These days, they’re just students, and Buhr is surrounded every day by […] Read more
Not just for the birds
Promising new research is exploring a whole new human food market for canary seed, a minor crop that Canada’s farmers play a major role in
Reading Time: 4 minutes Did you know that Canada is the world’s largest supplier of canary seed? “Canada accounts for 75 per cent of the world trade in canary seed, with exports worth $50 to $90 million annually,” says Pierre Hucl, a professor in the department of plant sciences and crop development centre at at the University of Saskatchewan. […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
