There is a column at the bottom of the page this issue that talks about loving your career. It is nice to make money, but foremost it is important to love what you do. And that got me thinking about careers and money and looking at economics of three industries, close to the hearts of […] Read more
Beef, Barley Or Oil — Decisions, Decisions
Another day of raking in the awards
Arrived home yesterday from the two-day Alberta Institute of Agrologists (AIA) meeting in Banff, where I was made an honorary member. Not sure if they are trying to “buy” the media with this award, but I can’t be bought. However, I can be rented at a very nominal rate. So feed me lunch and give […] Read more
Seed Placement Tops On Seeder Wish-List
Getting seed placed where they want it is the top priority among western Canadian farmers, contacted for this Farmer Panel, when asked what is the most important feature to them in any seeding system. It doesn’t matter if they are seeding everything very shallow — as little as one-third inch deep — or down to […] Read more
New Products Target Fusarium, Wireworms
Fusarium head blight (FHB) isn’t the only crop disease out there, but it is an increasingly serious one, three crop protection companies are targeting in 2011 with new foliar and seed-applied products. Bayer Crop Science, Syngenta Canada and BASF Canada all have introduced products for the coming year, that help suppress or reduce the impact […] Read more
Direct Seeding Reduces Fuel Use By Half
After monitoring fuel use on his Peace River region farm for the past year, John Milne says it does make him think twice about letting the tractor or truck idle too long. Milne, who is one of 30 Alberta farmers involved in a province-wide fuel measuring project, says it becomes an eye opener just to […] Read more
Delivering The Eat Beef Message
Just in case you think your checkoff dollars aren’t working — and they really are 24/7 — the Beef Information Centre (BIC) is making a big push in March, which is national Nutrition Month, to spread the word to Canadian consumers on the benefits of eating red meat and beef in particular. With input from […] Read more
The world is watching
I was just reading the Vancouver Humane Society newsletter which announced its Raising the Barn awareness program (www.raisingthebarn.ca) aimed in part at getting consumers to stop or at least reduce meat consumption. The campaign focuses on pretty well every type of meat production — beef, chicken, pigs — and is pushing for five freedoms in […] Read more
My new sure-fire formula for career development
I work for the most inane, whiney, inarticulate, editor who can barely put two words together, and doesn’t have a clue about agriculture (have you seen her pathetic excuse for a garden), and keeps everyone guessing on her true hair color and on top of that I craft these near-genius and compelling articles that generate […] Read more
New Short Line Hits The Rail
Ken Eshpeter and 150 of his farming friends and colleagues are now in the railway business. They still farm in central Alberta — seed, harvest and market a wide range of crops — but now they’ve added a final link in the process. They created a company and bought the rail line near their communities […] Read more
Composite Train Grading
Farmers in central Alberta, working together with the benefit of new software, are now able to build unit trains of producer cars, with the same quality of grain sourced from different farms. Composite train grading is a new feature available to these Alberta producers using the shortline Battle River Railway that runs over an 80 […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
