The Canadian government needs to start being honest with itself and farmers. Talking a tougher game would be a great start. China has hijacked the Canadian canola industry. Until someone proves to me otherwise I will continue to say that China's cancellation of a major grain company's export license is political. Pretending that this is... Read More
Category: Crop Production
Many questions still remain around why Chinese authorities blocked all canola export shipments from Richardson International about two weeks ago. For quite some time, China has been a major importer of Canadian canola. China's imports account for roughly 4o per cent of of all Canadian exports of canola seed, oil, and meal. The Canola Council... Read More
Herbicide resistance will sneak up on you if you don't change up your management practices from time to time. Steve Shirtliffe works to help farmers develop strategies to keep resistance issues at bay. He is a professor at the University of Saskatchewan, and I caught up to him at the recent CropConnect conference at Winnipeg,... Read More
The first day of spring has brought with it a flood of calls and questions on managing the wheat crop as it wakes up — and host Peter "Wheat Pete" Johnson couldn't be happier. In this week's Wheat Pete's Word, we have to start with some incredibly sad news out of Nebraska, where farmers and... Read More
Over the weekend, Members of Parliament held an emergency meeting to discuss the restriction of canola shipments from Richardson International to China. The news of the blocked shipments broke about two weeks ago, and China import officials say the revoked cargo was due to 'hazardous pests'. Brandon-Souris MP, Larry Maguire says other MPs wanted this... Read More
Quite often, growers discover herbicide resistant weeds on their farm after an effective herbicide fails to take out a targeted weed. After some testing and reviewing past herbicide application records, growers might realize that the resistance problem is the result of repeated use of a particular herbicide or a history of not following best management... Read More
Corn is moving into new territory — mainly west and north — but the agronomic information farmers in these new areas rely on is still largely based on data from places such as Illinois and Iowa. This has provided a basis for new corn farmers to get started, but there are a lot of differences... Read More
Farmers live and work in the real world, so real world events like weather can make a huge difference to a crop. We all know this, but sometimes we forget that the weather in the year prior to the current growing season also needs to be taken into account. Andrew Reid understands that crops grow... Read More
Starting in 2019, Ontario growers will have access to a tiered salvage benefit when dealing with deoxynivalenol (DON) in the corn crop. Announced this week via the provincial government, the new tiered salvage benefit will more "accurately reflect the additional costs associated with harvesting and handling corn affected by DON and help producers trying to... Read More
For anyone that's ever done an agriculture diploma or degree, there's likely a course that elicited groans when you'd see it on the schedule. For some it's likely communications, for others maybe statistics, but for many it's soil science. That was the case for Marla Riekman, which is ironic, given that she now serves as... Read More