Know the width and height of your equipment and adjust mirrors as needed. This will help ensure safe travel and clearance with potential obstructions such as road signs, overhead lines and bridges.

Safety while sharing the road: it’s a two-way street

Too often, many of us overlook the fact that we might be sharing the road with agricultural equipment. We hear of traffic incidents involving motor vehicles and agricultural equipment on public roadways every year. Unfortunately, many of these incidents have severe outcomes for motorists and farm equipment operators alike. In fact, according to Canadian Agricultural […] Read more



Les Henry: Nitrogen fertilizer. Where from here?

Les Henry: Nitrogen fertilizer. Where from here?

A look at emissions

Nitrogen fertilizer is much in the news this winter with the feds talking about seriously reducing its use to save the planet. This piece appears here at this time because I have just read Kevin Hursh’s March 1, 2022, column in The Western Producer with headline, “Have your say on reducing fertilizer emissions.” He makes […] Read more

We all have character traits that will help us perform well and those that will hurt us. We need to take advantage of the helpful ones and manage the hurtful ones.

Four market success factors, Part 2

Portfolio construction and how you manage yourself

While individual stock selection gets most of the airtime, organizing those stocks into a high performance, resilient portfolio is equally important. This aspect is referred to as diversification, but it is bigger than that. Some may think owning a number of companies in a couple different sectors qualifies as diversification. However, the market tends to […] Read more


Canadian farmers are a diverse bunch. To an outsider looking in, though, these great attributes, which are deserving of celebration and promotion, are often hidden under a veneer of homogeneity.

Toban Dyck: Clothes do not make the man — or do they?

The essence of a farmer deserves more examination

What does a farmer look like to you? Is that person wearing a zip-up sweater or jacket with an ag company logo emblazoned on the front and back? Is that person’s face and hands clean or are they dirty or stained and wrinkled from years of tinkering on machinery and toiling in the soil? Or, […] Read more

This blurry photo taken about 60 years ago is writer Lee Hart riding a dairy cow named Blackie around the barnyard at a time when today’s common technology such as a smartphone with a built-in camera would have been little more than science fiction.

Olds College takes a hands-on look at new technology

Park the tractor. Learning how to seed the field and spray crops with an unmanned drill and field sprayer is just another day in the life of students in 2022

When I get digging through old photos … look out! I often find something from my days on the farm in the mid-20th century that in today’s era of technology probably has closer ties to the 1700s. This fuzzy photo of a kid riding a milk cow is the first livestock tracking system my dad […] Read more


If your desire is to reduce costs heading into an uncertain spring season, seed treatment may be one of the first agronomic tools to be removed from your crop plan. However, seed treatment is an important investment for your farm, regardless of growing or economic conditions.

Why seed treatment is important this year

Q & A with an expert

Q: Why should I keep a seed treatment in my crop plan? A: Amid severe drought in parts of the Prairies and the desire to reduce costs heading into an uncertain spring season, seed treatment may be one of the first agronomic tools to be removed from your crop plan. However, seed treatment is an […] Read more

How to produce quality hay horse owners want to buy

How to produce quality hay horse owners want to buy

Taking crops off your hay land is much the same as cropping it to wheat or canola

What is hay? Recent hamburger commercials keep referring to grass-fed beef. If you feed your cattle hay, are they still grass fed? All the year round, grass feeding occurs in very few areas of the world. In most of North America, hay is fed up to six or seven months of the year. Bison or […] Read more


Road safety a shared responsibility

Road safety a shared responsibility

Sgt. Mark Hume has seen a lot on the roadways of Manitoba as a unit commander with RCMP Traffic Services. And working in rural Manitoba, it’s no surprise that he’s seen several roadway incidents involving agricultural equipment. He recalled an incident on Highway 5 by Gilbert Plains, located about 350 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg. On […] Read more