Since this blog thing has healed, I have no excuse now not to get into gear with some profound insights. I like avoiding big issues like grain transportation. They are too complex. Lisa Guenther did a great report in the March 4 issue of Grainews. Farmers couldn’t move grain this winter. So what were the […] Read more
Thoughts on grain transportation and ranchers
Australia tackles herbicide resistance
Farmer Down Under are looking to mechanical weed control to deal with herbicide resistant weeds
The expensive and time consuming weed control measures most Australian grain farmers are facing should stand as a clear warning to western Canadian farmers not to take the issue of herbicide resistant weeds lightly. Australian weed researcher, Michael Walsh, recently speaking to prairie farmers at the FarmTech Conference in Edmonton, made it abundantly clear if […] Read more
Handling system easy on cattle and people
Graeme Finn has come up with a low-manpower cattle-sorting system that allows him to sort about 200 head in an hour, is easy on the livestock, and perhaps equally importantly brings harmony to the processing day workforce. Anchored around a partial wagon-wheel layout, the sorting system enables one person to stand in the “hub” of […] Read more
A new spin on mud scrapers
A Manitoba farmer has come up with a tool that will keep mud from building up on packer wheels
Gordon Sharp of Riceton, Sask. and Henning Wubbe of La Riviere, Man. have completely different soil conditions, but both say any tool that can keep mud from building up on packer wheels at seeding is almost worth its weight in gold. Both grain and oilseed producers have become solid believers in the Devloo Roto Mud […] Read more
Listen to your air seeder
This wireless flow monitoring system uses small microphones to tell you when something isn’t right
Trent Duczek of Grayson, Sask. and Caleb Wierenga of Neerlandia, Alta. both agree that silence is not golden when it comes time to seeding the crop, but both have become big believers in an acoustic-based flow monitoring system using sound — or the lack of it — on their air drills that quickly tells them […] Read more
Good sale results wrap up Crowfoot Ranch
While southern Alberta rancher Dallas Jensen is probably holidaying in Israel at this point, he doesn’t have to worry about feeding Angus cattle this winter after dispersing the purebred herd on the 100-year-old family farm last fall. Citing it was “time for a change, and time to do some things we want to do,” Jensen […] Read more
Good food compliments great art
I have learned over the years if you want a successful field day, community meeting or book launch, serve good food. Even if the particular message you went to hear bombs, at least people aren’t hungry. So when my wife and I were greeted at the door of the Home Quarter Mercantile in Cochrane, Alta. […] Read more
The haves and the have nots
I was talking with Eric Boulton, 85, and his daughter Alexa Emerson recently about their beef operation on Gabriola Island just off the east coast of Vancouver Island (near Nanaimo). With an 85 head cowherd, they raise mostly Limousin calves for a local fresh meat market. Most of the market heifers, finished on their Somerset […] Read more
No quick fix for antibiotic resistance issue
I like wading in on complex, scientific topics like antibiotic resistance blamed on the use of too many antibiotics in the livestock industry, because then I can clear things up for the average, lay reader. So on this subject I can say that I completely agree — yes antibiotics are used in the livestock industry. […] Read more
Stop Sensor
If you’re tired of getting in and out of a truck or tractor cab half a dozen times trying to get equipment lined up for loading or unloading grain, fertilizer or seed, a former North Dakota farmer has come up with a durable, reliable signaling device that can save time, money and a lot of […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
