While you’re bringing in your 2019 soybean crop, start planning for next year
[UPDATED: Nov. 15, 2019] For most Prairie farmers, the 2019 growing season was a year that put their seed genetics to the test. It’s hard to make a choice about next year’s varieties without knowing what’s coming up in the weather forecast, but this is a good time to start studying your options. There are […] Read more
Australia's battle to hold back blackleg has had its share of success
Speakers at Syngenta’s launch of Saltro, a new seed treatment, explained that Australian farmers have a different, more conservative approach to blackleg. In 1973, said Steve Marcroft from Marcroft Grains Pathology in Australia, “blackleg completely destroyed the crop.” For 15 years after that, there was very little canola grown in Australia. In the late 1980s, […] Read more
This is the third issue in a row where I’ve written the Editor’s Column thinking, “I’m sure all of the readers will be finished harvest by the time they get this issue in the mail.” And I’m starting to think it might not be true. This morning an article from the CBC popped up on […] Read more
When we put together the last issue of Grainews, I assumed our harvest (and everyone else’s) would be finished by the time we got to our October issue. That is not how things have turned out. Like many farmers across the Prairies, we’ve had weather challenges this season. It rains, we wait for the fields […] Read more
TIMAC Agro is bringing a new type of phosphorus to Western Canada
When TIMAC Agro International’s Top Phos product was listed as a finalist in Ag in Motion’s Innovation Program, in the plant and soil science category, many western Canadian farmers were not familiar with the company. TIMAC Agro may be new to Canada, but it’s not a new company. “We are in 131 countries,” said TIMAC […] Read more
Big changes are ahead for wheat technology; buy your canola in new bag sizes
Jonathan Sweat, BASF’s vice-president, business management agricultural solutions, made a trip to the Canadian Prairies this summer to visit farms and attend Ag in Motion, where he took time to talk to Grainews. After more than 20 years at BASF, Sweat is still enthusiastic about the company’s investment in research. “About 40 per cent of […] Read more
CXN360 connects farmers with commodity buyers online through a membership system
Farmers generally sell grain based on personal relationships with buyers, says Mike Witkowicz. “You can manage, at best, probably four to five relationships with grain companies.” The problem with that is that there are more than four or five potential buyers out there. Witkowicz is the vice president of strategy and business development for CXN360, […] Read more
It’s raining today. My basement office is next to the cistern we’ve built into the basement of our house. Although we’ve tried drilling a few times, we haven’t found water yet, so we rely on this cistern for our household water. The good news today is that every drop of water that runs from the […] Read more
It’s just a blood test. Really!
We’ve all seen the “Man Van” at farm shows. I’m not sure what I thought was going on in there, but it turns out there are a crew of volunteers taking simple, five-second blood samples to find out if you (or the man next to you) have prostate cancer. I saw this up close at […] Read more
On July 24, Crops-a-palooza brought together 10 different hosting organizations, a handful of corporate sponsors, and government researchers and other volunteers. More than 200 farmers and agronomists came out to see the crops and research on display at the Canada-Manitoba Crop Diversification Centre at Carberry, Manitoba. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada agronomist Curtis Cavers spent most […] Read more
