Columns & Production Tips

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

By Toban Dyck April 29, 2022

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.

Columns, Hart Attacks

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

By Lee Hart April 28, 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.

Crops, Wheat & Chaff

Why seed treatment is important this year

Q & A with an expert

By Derek Flad April 27, 2022

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

Columns, Crops, Hay

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

By Ieuan Evans April 27, 2022

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

News, Wheat & Chaff

Road safety a shared responsibility

By Erin Kelly April 25, 2022

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

Major exporter wheat production in 2022 is expected to increase by only two million tonnes.

Editor's column, Wheat & Chaff

Editor’s Column: War, weather and wheat markets, Part 2

By Kari Belanger April 25, 2022

In my last column, I wrote about how world wheat markets are being affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Prairie weather outlook and planting conditions. In this column, written on April 6, I’d like to look at the overall wheat outlook. As I mentioned in my last column, generally, wheat prices have strengthened […] Read more

Columns, Crops

PHOTOS: Les Henry: Saltlander grass for salty ground

This tale has a happy ending

By Les Henry April 20, 2022

Saline soils flush up to the max with a dry spell after many wet years. The wet years bring up the water table and the dry years provide the evaporation to concentrate the salt. There is often an underlying cause (literally). And that underlying cause is artesian pressure from an aquifer. On my Dundurn farm […] Read more

By early March calving was well underway with two or three new calves every day.

Cattleman’s Corner, Columns

The Eppich family welcomes a baby boy

Eppich News: Babies are arriving on all fronts, so not much sleep these days

By Heather Eppich April 20, 2022

February was an exciting month for our family. The weather continued to be a roller coaster with freezing rain followed by days of -40 C with a bitterly cold wind. We did a little bit of work on our bull corral, moved quite a bit of snow around and Gregory did quite a bit of […] Read more

There are very few economic circumstances the market hasn’t seen, and as the saying goes, the four most dangerous words in market lexicon are, “this time is different.”

Columns

Four market success factors

And how they affect our personal investment success

By Herman VanGenderen April 18, 2022

There are four key factors affecting our personal investment success — understanding market behaviour, security selection, portfolio construction and managing yourself. I will discuss two in this column and two in the next. Most discussion is around security selection, but the other factors are equally important. Understanding market behaviour The market often exhibits perplexing and […] Read more

I have seen pea crops combined in some years by the end of August or early September. What the smart farmer then does is heavy harrow the pea stubble and bury a few bushels per acre of peas that missed the combine. Under moist soil conditions, these peas will germinate and, in most instances, grow well into the end of October.

Columns, Crops

Let’s get real on cover crops

Let’s call them Prairie catch crops

By Ieuan Evans April 14, 2022

Cover crops have been much heralded as possible wonder fits for Canadian Prairie cropping systems. Sometimes they might fit. It really depends heavily on our most important nutrient of all — water — and the type of following crop you intend to grow. In many years of Prairie crop evaluations, it is no surprise that […] Read more

GFM Network News

Huge crops in South America says analyst

U.S. livestock: ‘Cattle on feed’ report supports prices

U.S. grains: Wheat trades near contract lows under ample global supply