Here are some facts about the Canadian beef industry, you probably didn’t know – and these come via Neil French, a beef specialist and instructor at Olds College. Largest cattle producers Assuming on any given day there are a little over a billion head on cattle on the planet, India has the largest cattle herd […] Read more
Beef facts you've been dying to know
Prairie farmers are all over the board when it comes to deciding the best strategy for buying inputs for next season
Bought everything early. Just bought half. Still waiting a few more weeks to see. That’s what three Prairie farmers have done this fall in terms of securing crop inputs for 2009. John Smith of Pilot Mound, Man., bit the bullet and locked in fertilizer prices in July, worried that prices might have gone higher yet. […] Read more
Hardpan blocks roots from deep nutrients and moisture
When Scott Steinberger starts talking about a 350-plus bushel per acre barley yield, or a 135-bushel canola yield, a lot of producers think he is either full of baloney or he has been smoking some kind of “special” crop. The 24-year-old North Dakota farmer is quick to point out that those exceptional yields were just […] Read more
Consolidated Beef is finding an extra $15 per head for fed cattle, and now cull cattle are included in the program too
Manitoba cattle feeder Harry Dalke and Saskatchewan feeder Ryan Thompson both say they are seeing regular price premiums by being able to market their finished cattle through one organization that can approach packers not only with knowledge, but with price-negotiating clout. Dalke, who owns a custom feedlot and farming operation near Morden, Man. and Thompson, […] Read more
Lower cost back grounding
Back grounding calves over winter on swath grazing systems, as opposed to a feed yard can reduce costs by 30 to 50 percent, says a senior researcher with the Western Beef Development Centre (WBDC). Bart Lardner, who conducted research at the WBDC’s Termuende Research Farm, near Lanigan, Sask., told producers attending the Western Canadian Grazing […] Read more
Don't get me started
On this, my first ever journey into the World of Blog, I felt it fitting to rant about a topic that surfaces every so often and that is the misguided intentions of animal welfare people. In today’s paper was a short article about plans by Madeleine Pickens, wife of U.S. billionaire T. Boone Pickens to […] Read more
With variable-rate technology, your goal is to give extra fertilizer to the most productive parts of the field. It is not about forcing every acre to produce the same yield
Pat Kunz says he will never go back to a single-rate fertilizer application over his 2,300-acre farm in southern Alberta. Meanwhile neighbour Cam Schmatlz has adopted more of a wait and see attitude when it comes to the benefits of variable-rate fertilizer technology on his 2,100 acres. Both producers, who farm near Bieseker, just northeast […] Read more
This Alberta farmer will not go back to one flat-rate fertilizer blend
Pat Kunz estimates it takes two or three extra bushels of wheat yield or perhaps an extra bushel of $9 to $10 canola to cover the cost of using variable rate fertilizer technology (VRT) on his Bieseker, Alta., farm. That includes soil testing, analysis of yield data, and having a professional prepare the VRT fertilizer […] Read more
Money for on-farm projects has dried up, but EFP’s still have value
Environmental Farm Plan workshops are still going in Saskatchewan and will start up again in Alberta next month. Manitoba awaits a funding announcement from the federal government. The EFP program, which was launched in Western Canada five years ago under the federal Agricultural Policy Framework, essentially wrapped up early in 2008. This put program delivery, […] Read more
Sinking grain and oilseed prices combined with uncertainty over input costs has farmers throwing all sorts of ideas into the mix for 2009. Summerfallow is, at this point, a slim possibility for farmers who don’t normally plan to leave fields idle
Roller coaster markets and soaring input costs have many Western Canadian farmers in a complete state of confusion this fall. Are markets going to stabilize or rebound? Will input prices — particularly the price of fertilizer and fuel — drop by spring? It is a tough call and there doesn’t seem to be any clear […] Read more
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