But what about health risks like excessive noise and sun exposure?

Health hazards are often overlooked risks in farming — and while quite different from the dangers posed by farm machinery, they require the same proactive attention and prevention strategies as other farm hazards.

“The success of a farm is dependent on a farmer’s well-being. There are a lot of health hazards that can affect a farmer’s health, whether that’s hearing, sun, respiratory, or ergonomic, and they are equally as important as other safety matters on the farm,” says Kendra Ulmer, manager and clinical director of the Agricultural Health and Safety Network at the University of Saskatchewan’s Canadian Centre for Rural and Agricultural Health.

“If your health is compromised, that can create more safety risks. You can’t separate health and safety in agriculture; they go hand in hand.”

Listen up

A notable health hazard around the farm is noise-induced hearing loss, which can occur at any age from prolonged exposure to loud noises or as a result of a sudden loud incident, such as being near a tractor tire that blows. And there is no shortage of loud noises on the farm from machinery, livestock, power tools, ventilation fans, and more.

In fact, farmers and farm workers experience one of the highest rates of noise-induced hearing loss among all occupations. What’s more, research has found that almost 50 per cent of farm youth show some signs of noise-induced hearing loss compared to non-farming youth. Signs of hearing loss can include favouring one ear over the other, difficulty hearing high-pitched sounds, ringing or buzzing in the ears, frequently asking people to repeat what they said, and cranking the volume up high on the TV or radio.

“The important thing to recognize about hearing is that once it’s gone, it’s gone. Hearing aids can help but they don’t replace your hearing,” explains Ulmer.

“Noise-induced hearing loss is permanent and it is irreversible, but it is also 100 per cent preventable. That’s why it’s so important to protect the hearing of children and youth on the farm because the damage done when someone is young stays with them forever.”

In addition to potentially increasing incidents on the farm due to being unable to hear warning sounds, Ulmer notes that hearing loss can also affect a person’s overall health, including increased heart rate and blood pressure, digestive issues, stress, and trouble sleeping.

“For farmers with identified hearing loss, we strongly encourage them to seek support because it does contribute to their quality of life,” says Ulmer. “When we can decrease the noise, we decrease our risk of hearing loss, safety mishaps, and other physical and psychological effects, which means we’re increasing our overall well-being.”

So how can farmers, farm workers, and farm families protect their hearing? Some key preventive measures include:

• Look at ways to eliminate or reduce exposure to loud noises.
• Find hearing protection that works for you. Ears are all shaped differently, so what works for one person may not work for someone else. Try on different types of hearing protection to find one that is comfortable and provides a proper fit.
• When selecting hearing protection, consider other equipment and clothing you will be wearing, such as hard hats or glasses.
• Keep hearing protection in different areas of the farm where it is needed.
• Follow this rule of thumb: If you need to raise your voice to be heard by someone three feet away, then you need to wear hearing protection.

Sun exposure a risk even in winter

Another health hazard for farmers and farm workers is sun exposure. But, just as with hearing loss, it is preventable.

“The sun is a major occupational hazard for anyone who works outdoors,” explains Ulmer.

“With the amount of time that Canadian farmers and other agricultural workers spend outside, they are in the highest risk category for sun exposure, which increases the risk of skin cancer.”

Research has found that outdoor workers have a 2.5 to 3.5 times greater risk of skin cancer compared to indoor workers. With more than 80,000 new cases of skin cancer — 5,000 of which are melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer — diagnosed in Canada every year, according to the Canadian Skin Cancer Foundation, prevention and early detection are crucial.

“Farmers and farm families need to make sun safety a part of their daily routine and include it as part of their safety practices because there are serious long-term health consequences to sun exposure,” Ulmer says, noting people should check their skin periodically for any new or changed moles.

While many are conscious of harmful UV rays on hot and sunny summer days, Ulmer says those aren’t the only times when people should take precautions, noting the UV index needs to be monitored year-round.

“People need to think about the impact of the sun’s rays even when it’s cloudy or in the middle of the winter when the sun reflects off the snow. Just as farmers check the forecast to see about rain, they need to check the UV index daily,” Ulmer says.

Ways to protect against sun exposure and heat-related illness on the farm include:

• Wear a lightweight, long-sleeved shirt, sunglasses, and pants if possible.
• A wide-brimmed hat offers more protection than a baseball cap, which doesn’t cover the ears or back of the neck.
• Use sunscreen and reapply it every two hours.
• Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water.
• Take regular breaks in a cool or shaded area.
• Try to limit outside work during the peak of the day (11 a.m. – 3 p.m.).

While health hazards are ever-present on farms, they shouldn’t be ignored. Being proactive can make all the difference in protecting the well-being of everyone on the farm.

“Farmers and farm workers are always looking after the land, animals, and equipment, but it’s crucial for people to proactively look after their own health as well,” Ulmer says.

“There is a lot of talk about productivity, sustainability, and incorporating new technologies, but we still need a healthy farmer. Because there is no farming without the farmer.”

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Through its Fields of Purpose program in 2025, the company donated $100,000 worth of seed and crop protection products to charitable growing projects across Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.

The initiative builds on the community harvest fundraisers already happening in many rural areas, where farmers seed, grow and harvest a crop entirely for donation. All proceeds go to local causes or organizations such as the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

“BASF is a proud partner of Canadian growers, their communities and the causes that matter most to them,” said Leta LaRush, vice-president of BASF Agricultural Solutions Canada. “Rural communities are the heartbeat and backbone of Canada, and BASF is proud to help amplify their efforts.”

This year, 36 community fields benefited from the initiative. One of them, the Leduc & District Growing Project in Alberta, held its 20th annual harvest fundraiser on Sept. 25. BASF donated fungicide to the project, which project organizers said helped them get more for the crop.

Every bushel from the project’s fields is sold, and the proceeds are donated to the Foodgrains Bank.

“All of the inputs and the time for seeding and harvest are donated,” said one project member. “And that goes a long way.”

Growers or retailers interested in nominating a community project for 2026 can contact their local BASF representative.

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Syngenta Canada says its Envita Dry uses the naturally occurring bacterium Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus to enable plants to draw nitrogen directly from the air. The bacteria fix nitrogen inside plant cells, giving crops a steady, season-long nutrient source beyond what’s available in soil.

“Envita Dry gives plants the ability to source additional nitrogen from the atmosphere and deliver it to the right place and at the right time when the plant needs it,” said Gustavo G. Roelants, biologicals marketing lead for Syngenta Canada. “It supports nutrient-use efficiency by fixing nitrogen inside the plant’s leaves for a steady nutrient supply.”

Syngenta, which added the liquid form of Envita to its biologicals line in 2022, says the new dry formulation offers a two-year shelf life, a low use rate and a broad application window. Each 200-gram pouch treats 40 acres and can be added directly to tank water without pre-mixing.

The company recommends using Envita Dry alongside existing fertilizer programs and applying it with a non-ionic surfactant, or tank-mixing it with compatible fungicides and herbicides.

Field-tested in Canada, Envita Dry is registered for use on potatoes, canola, cereals, corn, pulses, soybeans and forage crops. It’s covered by a performance guarantee and designed to give farmers a simple, shelf-stable option for adding biological nitrogen fixation to their fertility plans, the company says.

More information and a list of tested tank-mix partners are available online.

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A University of Manitoba soil scientist is using AI and satellite data to explore how Prairie landscapes respond to long-term stress — and how they bounce back.

At a recent presentation, Nasem Badreldin, who teaches digital agronomy at the U of M, explained how his team is using simulations to study landscape resilience. The model they built uses 25 years of daily satellite data to show how vegetation and soil systems shift under pressures such as drought, erosion or the loss of organic matter.

Landscapes move through zones of stability, recovery, degradation and vulnerability. Over time, repeated stress causes ecosystems to become less predictable and more fragile.

The key, Badreldin says, isn’t just understanding how ecosystems degrade. It’s also about identifying early signs of transition, when a system begins shifting from one state to another. For example, a system might shift from grassland to shrubland or from productive cropland into a degraded state where native vegetation or invasive species take over.

In some cases, there isn’t much of a transition — the changes can be immediate and dramatic, like a landslide or flood wiping out vegetation. These “sudden death” events, as Badreldin calls them, also provide useful information.

The challenge is understanding what’s driving the change. What seems like a drought effect might actually be due to declining soil carbon, resulting in reduced water-holding capacity — less obvious, but potentially more impactful. This gap in clarity is one of the hurdles keeping the research from practical application.

One early tool emerging from Badreldin’s Digital AgroEcosystems Lab is a web app his team informally calls TerraQuest.

Still in early development (version 0.2), the tool was built using Google Earth Engine. It lets users draw a custom area anywhere in North America to access satellite data, including NDVI, leaf area index, precipitation and solar radiation. While it’s currently designed for researchers, a future version could plausibly support on-farm monitoring of changing field conditions.

But to be useful on the ground, models must link cause to effect — and that remains elusive.

“The models up to now can’t catch those two,” Badreldin says. “We are trying to find a way to do that. We don’t yet know how — but we will.” — D.N.

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If it seems the rain we do receive these days doesn’t go as far as it did in the past, it’s more than a hunch.

We’ve all had the experience of drinking more on a hot day. As it turns out, the atmosphere reacts similarly under global warming.

In the study “Warming accelerates global drought severity” published in the journal Nature, the University of California’s Santa Barbara Climate Hazards Center director Chris Funk says global warming is causing the atmosphere to behave “like a sponge, soaking up moisture faster than it can be replaced.”

In other words, the air is getting thirstier — a phenomenon that researchers say has increased the intensity of global droughts by 40 per cent over the past four decades.

“Drought is based on the difference between water supply (from precipitation) and atmospheric water demand. Including the latter reveals substantial increases in drought as the atmosphere warms,” Funk says in a release.

Globally, the areas in drought expanded by 74 per cent between 2018 and 2022. Atmospheric evaporative demand (AED) was responsible for 58 per cent of that increase.

“Our findings indicate that AED has an increasingly important role in driving severe droughts and that this tendency will likely continue under future warming scenarios.”

Most now accept that the climate is heating up, although debate continues as to the cause. Less well understood is the connection between global warming and the “desiccating influence of the atmosphere,” Funk said.

The atmosphere’s growing thirst adds a third dimension to precipitation and soil moisture equation driving crop yields — one that could challenge the viability of contemporary crop rotations.

University of Manitoba researchers recently published a study on how different crop combinations perform under drought conditions.

“The main objective of this study was to compare cropping systems that incorporated … diversity, intercropping, cover cropping, and heat tolerance with a “business-as-usual” rotation,” the research team, consisting of Samantha Curtis, Martin Entz, Katherine Stanley, Doug Cattani and Kim Schneider, reports in the Canadian Journal of Plant Science.

Atmospheric dryness (measured as vapour pressure deficit) during the two-year study in 2020-2021 was well above the long-term average.

The business-as-usual rotation selected for this study was wheat-canola-wheat-soybean, grown over two years at the Ian N. Morrison Research Farm located at Carman, Man.

The study also included a warm-season combination (corn-sunflower-dry bean-canola), a biodiverse rotation containing nine crops (fall rye with a cover crop-intercropped corn and soybeans-intercropped peas and canola-green fallow mixture), a perennial grain (Kernza intermediate wheat grass) and an organic rotation (millet-green fallow mixture-wheat).

The business-as-usual rotation yielded only 71 per cent of the biodiverse rotation and 59 per cent of the warm-season rotation. It also had a lower net return than the warm season rotation and fewer “live root days,” which is a measure of soil health potential, than either the biodiverse or the warm-season rotation.

The biodiverse rotation resulted in a net return similar to the business-as-usual crop mix, but needed half as much the nitrogen fertilizer. “While the biodiverse rotation required more seeding passes and greater plant diversity knowledge, the benefits observed here suggest that incentives and educational programs to speed adoption of biodiverse systems should be a priority,” the research report says.

“If growing conditions in Manitoba continue to become hotter and drier as predicted, growing more water-use efficient crops such as fall rye, corn, sunflower, and corn-soybean intercrops would increase climate resilience.”

A drying atmosphere also sets stage for the devastating wildfires now sweeping through wide swaths of Western Canada’s boreal forests every spring and summer, creating the prolonged and hazardous smoke conditions cloaking the region.

One of the unanticipated outcomes from all that smoke is its counterbalancing effect cooling things down.

A recently released University of Washington paper says wildfires in Canada and Siberia may reduce the earth’s warming by up to 12 per cent globally and 38 per cent in the Arctic over the next 35 years.

“Because the aerosols in smoke brighten clouds and reflect sunlight, summer temperatures during fire season drop in northern regions, leading to reduced sea ice loss and cooler winter temperatures,” lead author Edward Blanchard-Wrigglesworth says in a release.

No one can say this is good news. The authors point out that wildfires are expected to intensify in coming years, which doesn’t bode well for human health or forest biodiversity. And their effects on the boreal forest may escalate the release of more carbon into the atmosphere.

What all this is telling us is that even with computer modeling, improved real-time monitoring and technologies such as the emerging AI, we don’t have a good handle on the cascading effects of a changing environment. The effects and counterbalances are constantly setting new changes in motion.

I am reminded of an expression I’ve heard now and again from some of the more seasoned farmers I know: “Nature always bats last.”

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The study found that while forage yields were slightly reduced in wetter years due to shade, they actually increased during dry periods — suggesting that solar panels may help moderate the effects of drought on pastureland.

This work from Colorado is part of a growing field called agrivoltaics, which explores whether land can be used for both agriculture and solar power generation — an idea that may have particular relevance as producers grapple with tighter margins, more frequent drought and the push for additional on-farm revenue streams.

The concept is also gaining traction in Canada. The University of Calgary is developing an agrivoltaics research park to test practical setups, including vertically oriented solar panels — like fences — that could allow for both grazing and machinery access. This design aims to address one of the biggest barriers to dual-use in field crops: the sheer size of Prairie farm equipment.

An Alberta agrivoltaics conference held in late June brought together farmers, researchers and energy developers to explore how land-sharing models could work in practice — and where policy or infrastructure changes might be needed.

There’s also growing interest in how existing incentive programs for renewable energy could support agrivoltaics projects, as well as the potential for new programs specifically designed to encourage stacking of food or forage production with solar power generation.

For now, agrivoltaics remains mostly experimental in a Canadian context, but interest is growing, and future on-farm applications are increasingly part of the conversation.

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That’s why this McCormick-Deering, on display at the World Ag Expo in California earlier this year, caught my attention.

At first glance it looked like just another restored model. But on closer examination, this tractor was now very different than how it rolled off the assembly line, probably in the 1930s.

Aside from sporting oversized tires and a glossy new paint job, it was re-powered with a Cummins diesel engine.

It’s hard to say exactly what model this was originally — probably a 22-36, which was in production from 1929 to 1934. If so, it would originally have had a massive 425-cubic inch (seven-litre) gasoline engine under the hood, but it would only have delivered about 30 horsepower on the drawbar despite all those cubic inches.

The Cummins almost certainly delivers at least that much but takes up barely half the space under the hood.

The tractor was also probably delivered to its first owner riding on steel wheels rather than rubber tires.

The McCormick-Deering brand name was used by International Harvester Co. (IH) from the 1920s through the 1940s. The brand was a callback to the names of two of the companies merged in 1902 to form IH — which itself later merged with Case in the 1980s and with New Holland in 1999 as CNH.

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Solar energy produces more than twice as much heat gain on the south wall of a bin in spring as it does during the summer. That, in addition to the solar heat gain on a bin roof, can create an environment conducive to grain spoilage. A 10 F temperature increase reduces the allowable storage time of grain by about half. The storage time of corn at 17 per cent moisture, for one example, is reduced from about 130 days at 50 F (10 C) to about 75 days at 60 F (16 C) and 45 days at 70 F (21 C).

Hellevang recommends periodically running aeration fans during the spring to keep grain below 40 F (4 C) as long as possible during spring and early summer if the grain is dry. In northern states, night air temperatures are normally near or below 40 F in May.

Bin vents can become blocked with frost and ice when the fan is operated at temperatures near or below freezing, which may damage the roof. Leave the fill and access door open as a pressure relief valve when operating the fan at temperatures near or below freezing.

Cover the fan when it is not operating to prevent warm air from blowing into the bin or being drawn into the bin due to a chimney effect and heating the stored grain to temperatures more prone to spoilage and insect infestations. Hellevang also recommends ventilating the top of the bin to remove the solar heat gain that warms the grain. Provide air inlets near the eaves and exhausts near the peak so the top of the bin can ventilate due to warm air rising — similar to what occurs in an attic — or use a roof exhaust fan.

Hellevang advises stored grain should be monitored closely to detect problems early. Grain temperature should be checked every two weeks during the spring and summer. A temperature increase may indicate a storage problem. Grain also should be examined for insect infestations. Check the moisture content of stored grain to determine if it needs to be dried. Remember to verify the moisture content measured by a meter has been adjusted for grain temperature. Also, remember that moisture measurements of grain at temperatures below about 40 F may not be accurate. Verify the accuracy of the measurement by warming the grain sample to room temperature in a sealed plastic bag before measuring the moisture content.

Some in-bin cables estimate grain moisture content by measuring the temperature and air relative humidity and then calculating the grain moisture content based on grain equilibrium moisture content equations. The measured moisture may be one to 1.5 per cent different than the true moisture content, so it is a tool that should be verified with another moisture content measurement method.

Corn needs to be dried to 13-14 per cent moisture for summer storage to prevent spoilage. Soybeans should be dried to 11-12 per cent, wheat to 13 per cent and barley to 12 per cent. The allowable storage time for 13 per cent moisture soybeans is less than 100 days at 70 F.

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So women are becoming larger consumers of the kind of workwear once only men needed. But finding that style of workwear designed specifically for women may be a bigger challenge than for men.

At the beginning of April, John Deere announced it was teaming up with Dovetail Workwear to develop a line of dedicated work clothing designed specifically for women.

“We’ve combined Dovetail’s expertise in workwear designed to fit women, with iconic John Deere style,” Dovetail’s marketing operations manager Jessica Strait said in an email. “You’ll see signature John Deere colours and iconography, but the real story is in the function.

“These pieces are built from the ground up for women who farm — designed to move with you, stand up to tough conditions and deliver professional-grade durability. We’re talking reinforced knees, tool-friendly pockets, flexible fabrics and fits that actually fit.”

“Through this workwear line we hope to help women in agriculture feel great as they dress for the busy and unique lives they lead,” John Deere’s global director for brand licensing, Lauren Willis, said.

John Deere is the only major equipment brand Dovetail is currently working with. The company calls it a one-of-a-kind collection that is intended first of all to be practical and durable.

“We are launching with an eight-piece capsule collection for spring 2025,” Strait added, “including a bootcut pant, overalls, a lightweight work shirt, two graphic tees and bandanas. Each piece has been carefully developed to address common gaps in the current workwear offered to women in farming.”

The clothing line was released on April 2, and can be viewed online. The website also provides a directory of retail businesses that carry the Dovetail Workwear clothing line in Canada. Clothing can also be ordered online.

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As Griffith spoke, what caught my attention is where the Airblast fan gets heat to dry grain. It doesn’t have a traditional, dedicated heat source such as a burner or heating element to dry grain: it uses the heat generated by its 22-horsepower Kohler engine for that task.

The Airblast runs on either propane or natural gas — so, internal combustion = heat — and because it isn’t tied to one spot by an electrical connection, the fan is easily moved from bin to bin as needed.

“The way it’s designed, all of the air is flowing over the engine so any air moving over it will pick up heat from the engine,” Griffith says. “We’ve also placed a heat exchanger under the engine.”

The heat exchanger picks up the heat generated by the exhaust, while the fan pushes out any exhaust gases so they can’t enter a grain bin. The overall design provides up to 130,000 BTU of free heat, or an approximate 10 C increase in air temperature.

Wavcor estimates the engine consumes about nine litres of propane per hour when drying grain and about three litres per hour when cooling grain. Griffith notes the Kohler engine pushes air at the equivalent of a 20-horsepower electric fan.

While a traditional grain dryer has far more heating capacity to dry grain, the portable nature of the Airblast could be a benefit for farmers with bins in remote locations. As for attaching the fan to a grain bin, that’s accomplished using an air sock.

“We manufacture the air socks and can make whatever they need,” Griffith adds. “It’s easy to hook up to the bin and that’s why a lot of guys move it between bins as it’s not tied to one bin.”

Wavcor manufactures its Airblast fan out of Saskatoon.

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