Lees insight

  I had a call yesterday from Ed Molzan who farms in southwest Ontario – west of London, south of Sarnia, near a little place call Alvinston. As a long time reader of Grainews (25 years) and as a soybean grower (for 60 years), Ed called to let me know he had the earliest soybean […] Read more

(To be honest, sometimes I throw out a tiny misleading headline like that, just to catch people’s attention.) The point is, I just read Jerry Klassen’s beef market column which will be appearing in the early October issue of Grainews, (apparently I have to read it, that is part of my job), but aside from […] Read more

I just finished talking to a few Prairie farmers for a regular feature I do for Grainews called the Farmer Panel. It will be published in early October. I don’t think any of them had any earth-shattering news, but it is always interesting for me to talk to farmers about what they are doing and […] Read more

Soil scientists and crop advisors have for years preached from the agronomy pulpit about the value of soil testing, but for farmers in those parts of Western Canada where it was really, really wet this year, it appears to be really, Really, REALLY important to consider soil testing this fall. After all this rain, in […] Read more

 Man, those kids in the Wasa, B.C. 4-H Club are tough. I bet you don’t get membership there just on good looks and a great brownie recipe. It was great to have a brief visit with Bryce Bostock at lunch today.  He probably wouldn’t be a chatter box with me at the best of times […] Read more

  I made a trip to the Drumheller Penitentiary Sunday to visit a rancher friend who is serving time. Apparently Revenue Canada caught him in a lie on his income tax forms. He claimed he made a nice profit in the beef business!  But, it was a good morning for a drive through farm country […] Read more

It maybe wasn’t the best year to showcase grazing corn – or any corn for that matter, but even with only an estimated eight ton yield per acre, central Alberta rancher Ian Murray, says a demonstration field of forage corn will still provide several weeks of grazing for his cattle this winter. Murray, (pictured)  who […] Read more

 I don’t have much time to write this morning, I have to pick up Bryce, his dad Mark, Josh, Mike and Russell as we head out for a quick game of touch football before stopping at Burger King for something to eat. Maybe we’ll catch a movie too. Don’t wait up. Okay, those may not be […] Read more

The kid obviously needs to work on his penmanship, but after five days in a coma, and still with more hoses connected to his body than on the air distribution system of a John Deere seed drill, no one seemed too worried about the style of the scribble – the message was clear. Bryce was […] Read more

  I know I should be more like my responsible co-workers and be posting reports here that help farmers grow better crops, or harvest more pounds of beef per acre, but ideas for this column usually come from what’s on my mind at the moment. And this morning before I head off to a Foothills […] Read more