(Dave Bedard photo)

Diesel prices poised to rise in new year

CNS Canada — The lingering effects of two large hurricanes in the U.S. continue to be felt in the diesel market as harvest winds down throughout North America. In particular, Hurricane Harvey was a disruptive force on the U.S. energy market as it temporarily halted production at refineries. Both gas and diesel prices rose in […] Read more


(Video screengrab from DeveronUAS.com)

Climate Corp. to partner with Canadian drone data firm

In a bid to bring its eye-in-the-sky views of clients’ fields closer to Earth, Monsanto’s Climate Corp. has struck up a partnership with a Canadian drone data provider. Climate on Nov. 15 announced an “official” partnership with Toronto-based Deveron UAS, which operates a fleet of drones serving farm clients across North America, to deliver “advanced” […] Read more

GSI’s FlexWave inflatable liner pushes grain toward an auger trough, eliminating the need to manually enter bins to clean them out.

GSI introduces FlexWave

Inflatable liners clean out bin floors

Imagine an easier way to clean out flat-bottom grain bins. GSI was demonstrating its new FlexWave technology in August at the U.S. Farm Progress Show in Illinois as an entirely new and easy way to do exactly that. According to the company, FlexWave is a new alternative to the common grain bin sweeps, brooms and […] Read more





A new elevator and retail site at Viking, Alta. is expected to complement Parrish and Heimbecker’s Dakota crop services centre at Sedgewick, shown here. (Parrishandheimbecker.com)

P+H plans new east-central Alberta elevator

Winnipeg grain and agrifood firm Parrish and Heimbecker is set to reinforce its recent arrival in the east-central Alberta retail market with a new grain elevator. Privately-held P+H announced Tuesday it will build a new 46,000-tonne capacity grain elevator and crop input centre at Viking, about 120 km southeast of Edmonton. The Viking site will […] Read more

Promise of self-fertilizing attracts investment

Promise of self-fertilizing attracts investment

Bayer bets big on a future where crops are designed to fertilizer themselves

There are a lot of efforts underway to optimize and minimize fertilizer use in crop production. Precision agriculture tools are improving the accuracy of where fertilizer is placed so that as much of it as possible reaches the plants that need it. And researchers from at least two Canadian universities — Ottawa’s Carleton University and […] Read more


Western bumblebee. (Stephen Ausmus photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

U.S. study links bumblebee declines to fungicide use

A new look at the environmental factors around declining bumblebee populations and ranges points to a less-than-usual suspect: fungicides. “Insecticides work; they kill insects. Fungicides have been largely overlooked because they are not targeted for insects, but fungicides may not be quite as benign — toward bumblebees — as we once thought,” Scott McArt, assistant […] Read more

Black beetles on canola buds.

Looking back on 2017’s biggest growing challenges

Agronomy tips... from the field

Looking back on issues that growers had to deal with during the 2017 growing season, two things come to mind: insects and weather. In the spring, several regions across the Prairies experienced heavy flea beetle and cutworm pressure in their canola crops, along with some diamondback moth pressure later in the season. Keep in mind […] Read more