Word at the coffee shop is that Jeff Kucharski is gone as CEO of the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency (ALMA). I haven’t seen that announced officially yet, but I figured it was a good rumor to spread if nothing else. Kucharski who has been with Alberta Agriculture for more than 20 years and worked […] Read more
CEO of Alberta’s livestock agency is gone
The Cost Of Compaction
Matt Price wants to know why one field on his south central Alberta farm has an average Hard Red Spring Wheat yield of about 68 bushels per acre, while a field across the road, with the same soil and same fertility, has an average of 78 bushels per acre. Is the 10-bushel yield difference related […] Read more
Charles Schmidt wants to deep-till his whole farm about once every 15 years. He says mixing his hardpan-prone soil makes the difference between profit and loss
Charles Schmidt knows it takes time and money to do deep tillage — or “subsoiling” — on his eastern Alberta farm, but he says the treatment makes a big difference. It determines whether a field is worth farming. He can put the time, effort and expense into growing a 15-bushel-per-acre wheat crop, or he can […] Read more
Ranchers win fight against Imperial Oil
Congratulations to a Calgary-area ranching family who fought Imperial Oil for what they believed and won. A $70,000 judgment from the courts in favor of Ball Ranch, after a seven year dispute and court case, certainly won’t put them on easy-street, but it will give Craig and Susan Graham, and Susan’s mother Agnes Ball, some […] Read more
Man, I am getting old
I don’t know if farmers and ranchers listen to music, but I suspect they do. My wife and I tuned into about half an hour of the Grammy Awards last night and we both said ‘what the hell was that?’ How old am I? There was a time when I could watch the Grammies and […] Read more
Time will tell what the new Obama government does with COOL and NAFTA
It is anyone’s guess how the new U. S. government administration will respond to NAFTA and existing Canada/U. S. trade agreements, but the wording of the final rule regarding Country Of Origin Labeling (COOL) of Canadian meat products, appears to be an improvement, says a spokesperson for the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA). The final COOL […] Read more
This Saskatchewan farmer has straight combined canola for the past six years. He wants a thick crop that’s knitted together and cuts tall to minimize shatter losses.
“It may take a bit more management to produce and straight combine a crop, but we have found that three extra bushels in the bin to be consistent.” —Dennis Reimer What seemed like poor timing for machinery failure during harvest a few years ago actually turned out to be an opportunity for Saskatchewan farmer Dennis […] Read more
While dual-banding nutrients is a benefit, don’t put all your phosphorus fertilizer in one basket. You want 10 to 15 pounds in the seed row
If a couple extra bushels of wheat per acre makes a difference to you, placing 10 to 15 pounds of starter phosphorous with the seed may be a practice to consider, say western Canada soil fertility specialists. Those two bushels aren’t a huge difference, points out Geza Racz, a professor and researcher with the University […] Read more
Producers follow fertilizer recommendations in one or two pass operations. They’re diligent about keeping high rates of nitrogen away from the seed row
Keep the phosphorous with the seed and either broadcast or band nitrogen away from the seed row. That’s how producers contacted for this month’s farmer panel handle their fertilizer placement. None of the four Prairie farmers contacted at random apply a dual blend of phosphorous and nitrogen in a band separate from the seed row […] Read more
A burger by any other name
Man, I had lunch the other day with a couple Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) types, and I don’t know what to think. One had a chicken quesadilla and then conveniently left her wallet in the car, and the other one had the All-American burger. No wonder this industry is in trouble. I think it should […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
