Outside of speculative fervor, numbers count

Outside of speculative fervor, numbers count

How tech giants Amazon and Shopify stack up against Linamar

This is the third installment of my series on comparative company analysis. For this column, I’m looking at two “hot” tech companies, Amazon (AMZN) and Shopify (SHOP) and contrasting them with an old school Canadian industrial company Linamar (LNR), which has an agricultural connection through the ownership of MacDon. My analysis was done in late […] Read more

This map shows the soil zones of the Canadian Prairies and the corresponding wheat yields and water use.

Les Henry: Palliser’s famous triangle and soil zones of the Prairie provinces

Let's get back to basics

The map, “Soil Zones of the Canadian Prairies,” in this article is the fold-out frontispiece of Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water. The soil zones are actually soil climatic zones. The long-term climate is written in the topsoil of the various soil zones. The soil zones have been the framework within which agronomic recommendations have […] Read more


Economic and ecological benefits of annual forages

Economic and ecological benefits of annual forages

Q & A with an expert

Q: What can I do with my unseeded acres now the weather is more favourable?  A: Flooding and drought at seeding time are common situations that may lead to acres being unseeded to previously planned high-value crops. While crop insurance can provide varying levels of compensation for acres unseeded to long-season cash crops, sometimes opportunities […] Read more

Dave, Gurleen and Adam (l-r) are three farmers looking for the partner of their dreams on a new television show called, Farming For Love.

Editor’s Column: Love on the farm 

Hello, there! You’ve seen my byline for the last year or so in various pages of Grainews, ever since I started working here as an associate editor, but this is my first time writing in this space. I’m filling in for Grainews editor extraordinaire, Kari Belanger, who’s taking a well-deserved break after a hectic winter/spring […] Read more


A durable plan to pass on the farm

A durable plan to pass on the farm

The eldest child takes over the farm while siblings receive profits as shareholders of the farm corporation

In south-central Manitoba, a farmer we’ll call Ralph, 48, and his wife, who we’ll call Susie, 46, have three children ages 13, 14 and 18. Ralph and Susie want to retire in 17 years, when Ralph is 65. The plan is for the eldest son, who we’ll call Parker, to take over the farm. It’s […] Read more



Wrapping up this highly irregular seeding season with a final barley crop.

Better late than never

For the 2022 seeding season that about sums things up

I am writing this on my phone while seeding our last field. It’s June 9 and this is the latest I’ve ever seeded a crop. I’m seeding barley on a 90-acre parcel in the Red River Valley. I have exactly four minutes and five seconds of writing time between turns at each end of the […] Read more

Safety days aim to keep farm kids safe and healthy

Progressive Agriculture Foundation (PAF) Safety Days are an educational initiative designed to make farm and ranch life safer and healthier for children and their communities. The program provides training and resources for local communities to conduct one-day safety and health programs, with age-appropriate activities that are hands-on, fun and safe for children.  At the PAF […] Read more


buffalos

Bison, buffalo and beefalo

A brief history of the North American bison and how its story almost ended in extinction

What’s in a name? The big imposing animals that roamed the North American prairies and northern woodlands were called buffalo. Strictly speaking, buffalo are African and Asian cattle, distinct species from the North American and European animals. Technically and biologically speaking, our buffalo are not buffalo but bison. The North American Plains buffalo is classified […] Read more