Thinking about buying a plasma cutter?

Christmas is only a couple of months away—as hard as that is to believe. But if you can’t wait for Santa to bring you some new tools for the farm workshop, now might be a good time to consider upgrading your shop’s metalworking equipment by adding a plasma cutter, if you don’t already have one. […] Read more


Is there another beef recall shoe to drop?

 I hate to sound pessimistic, but there is just something about this XL Foods meat recall that reminds me of the 9/11 attacks on New York in 2001. I know the contaminated meat recall at XL wasn’t a terrorist attack, but I remember turning on TV in the early morning of September 11, 2001 and […] Read more



Is the meat recall gong show over?

If there is one thing we are learning about the XL Foods meat recall is how not to handle a wide-scale meat recall. To me it is a gong show. The first alarm was raised a month ago — September 4 —  with a batch of meat testing positive for E.coli 0157:H7 and since then […] Read more

Behind the scenes at Fendt and Agritechnica in Germany

I logged a lot of travel miles last week. About 10,000, actually. And that’s not an exaggeration. I flew to Germany for a week of meetings and events spread out from Frankfurt to a small town called Marktoberdorf near the Austrian border. So it was several days of planes, trains and automobiles. But it was […] Read more


Silence isn’t golden when it comes to meat safety

I feel badly for XL Foods for this major meat recall. I am sure they never intend to produce products that may be suspect in making people sick. But they sure have dropped the ball from a PR standpoint when it comes to “dealing” with this latest and expanding alarm over a wide range of […] Read more

Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show

Last week I caught a flight to Toronto to take in Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show (outdoorfarmshow.com). Although the show has been an annual event in southern Ontario for 19 years, this was my time through the gates to have a look at it. Getting from Pearson airport out to Woodstock where the show is held […] Read more



U.S. beef market is one giant bird in the hand

A Canadian ag/food policy group said this week the Canadian beef industry has to reduce its reliance on the U.S. market, but the point is if Canada doesn’t sell beef to the U.S. who else is going to buy it at that price. The message that the Canadian beef industry needs to reduce its reliance […] Read more