Farming Smarter, the southern Alberta applied research association, based in Lethbridge, launched my film career today. I play a brief but pivotal role in Farming Smarter’s latest promotional video called “Not Grandpa’s Farm”. If you really pay attention near the end, I have a 3.5 second dramatic scene as an old fart with a walking […] Read more
Smarter Farming launches my film career
Shaping the new feedmill licensing system
Various players of the Canadian livestock feeding industry are busy adding their two-cents worth (or it might be $2 worth) of comments to a proposal by the Canadian Grain Commission to license feedmills. Unless Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz has a change of heart, it looks like the licensing will happen. What the industry is doing […] Read more
There is a Heather Smith Thomas
There is a real, live, actual ranching person in central Idaho called Heather Smith Thomas. I’ve met her. Thomas’ columns and features stories have been appearing in Grainews, Canadian Cattlemen Magazine, and numerous U.S. publications for more than 30 years. But it wasn’t until a Friday morning in late March that she and a Grainews […] Read more
Don’t overdo on-farm trials
On-farm trials are the perfect way to test new technology on your farm
Greg Stamp likes to keep on-farm field trials on his southern Alberta farm simple. If he’s evaluating the effectiveness of a new fungicide or herbicide, for example, he’ll make two or three passes with the sprayer with the new treatment and then two or three more passes for the check strip (no new product). He’ll […] Read more
Same standards apply to all livestock sectors
The livestock industry as a whole is on the same track in aiming to produce a high-quality product
I can’t talk much about the situation across Canada, but I certainly get the impression poultry producers in Alberta are doing their best to produce meat birds and eggs to deliver a high-quality product raised with the best production practices possible. Poultry operations don’t have a big fit with Cattleman’s Corner, but looking around the […] Read more
The great Arizona ostrich experience
I don’t know if the Ostrich Festival in Chandler, Arizona will become an annual destination, but it was good to at least check it out once. I was surprised that an annual event that is expected to draw about 300,000 over the weekend really didn’t have an awful lot to do with ostriches. Apparently it […] Read more
Many hazards to seed survival
Want to increase your seed survival rates? Find out what these experts say
Like most things in life, there is no simple answer to what causes seed not to germinate or the seedling to die before it gets out of the ground. Alberta’s AgTech Centre in Lethbridge has been looking at mechanical factors such as seed placement, seeding depth and seeding speed as likely suspects playing a role […] Read more
Inspired by Idaho
You don’t see cattle being fed like this in Western Canada. Actually you do on thousands of farms across the Prairies. But seeing these Black Angus cattle in a field in southern Idaho this week inspired me to resume my blog. This photo was taken somewhere near Idaho Falls in southern Idaho — all new […] Read more
Seed survival still stumps
Seed killer still at large. Several suspects behind high mortality, but no arrests
What’s killing those canola seeds before a seedling can get out of the ground? That could very well be a 64 million or perhaps billion dollar answer for Prairie farmers looking at seed priced at about $10 per pound and anywhere from a 20 to 50 per cent seed mortality rate. But you can’t necessarily […] Read more
Affinity launches new software
BASF has teamed up with Affinity to create farm management software
Easy-to-use comprehensive crop and farm management software that comes with unlimited, reliable six-day and evening support? It may sound too good to be true, but that’s the promise that Affinity is offering to Canadian farmers signing up to use the Compass Grower Advanced software program. The software, delivered on a Microsoft platform is designed to […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
