Lees insight

There are some great things happening out there with crops and crop protection products these days. And here’s a sampling. Dow AgroSciences is bringing three products to the market place this fall that are far more than just “new and improved” herbicides, you can find more details on these in an upcoming issue of Grainews. […] Read more

The family that is launching a new beef packing plant in Alberta, likely targeting some specialty or niche markets, says they are on track to have the facility just north of Calgary processing cattle by January 1, 2015. In a newsletter released this week, Rich Vesta who along with his son Jeremy are principals behind […] Read more

Lars Stadman came all the way from Holland to Regina, Sask. this week to tell Western Canadian farmers his company makes an excellent high clearance field sprayer. Stadman, is sort of a soloist hoping to standout amid a symphony of product pitches and well staged machinery displays at the Canadian Farm Progress Show. He manned […] Read more

The pea leaf weevil, which has become fairly common in southern Alberta and southwest Saskatchewan over the past 15 years, doesn’t necessarily have a direct impact on pulse crop yields, but it can affect the ability of the crop to fix nitrogen. While the adults feed on the leaves of the plant and cause distinctive […] Read more

Vaderstad, the Swedish machinery manufacturer that partnered with Saskatchewan’s Seed Hawk seeding systems a few years ago, is making its own mark on Western Canada with a well established line of vertical tillage and specialty seeding equipment. While the Carrier vertical tillage equipment and Tempo precision planter are well known in markets around the world, […] Read more

Take one year of field research work for what it is worth, but results of the first year of the Ultimate Canola Challenge across Western Canada shows that a deluxe, gold-lined production package doesn’t appear to do anymore for canola yield than a good meat and potatoes program. Research groups in all prairie provinces are […] Read more

With cattle out on pasture, and crops growing it probably doesn’t mean you can take the summer off, but perhaps you can get away for a day or two here and there to attend some important events happening in Western Canada. FARM PROGRESS SHOW, REGINA June 18 to 20, 2014 Certainly if you’re producing crops […] Read more

A U.S. based organization called Center For Food Safety is keeping the public and the media advised of challenges against genetically modified crops and animal welfare issue. I just read an article from the Center reporting that two counties in Oregon have now voted to ban production and growing of genetically engineered crops. Voters in […] Read more

I just returned from the definitive world fieldwork tour assessing the state of seeding and pasture progress on farmland surrounded by the Tri-City area of Balzac, Beiseker, and Nightingale (just north and east of Calgary). The executive summary — it is very quiet out there folks. Tractors and air seeders waiting for drier fields and […] Read more

I always remember watching an old Rock Hudson and Doris Day movie, and Rock came home one day to announce to his movie wife, Doris Day, start packing — he’d just bought a new house and they were moving. It was all news to her.   And she batted her eyes, smiled, gave him a […] Read more