Sam King isn’t your conventional Canadian cattle rancher. He doesn’t make hay, he doesn’t use a straw bale, and he never checks a cow during calving season. And he grows corn year after year far north of the 49th parallel. For King, it has to be simple, efficient and cost effective. Cattle aren’t worth more. […] Read more
Corn Grazing In The North
Make Full Use Of Equipment
Albert Einstein said that in the middle of every difficulty comes opportunity. Martin Leuenberger is someone who finds those opportunities. Grain farming in the Peace River country of northern British Columbia is generally classified as high risk. Drought and rising input prices have made it increasingly so. But Leuenberger thrives on the opportunities these difficulties […] Read more
…which is the north end of the Peace River Region, it can probably work anywhere on the Prairies. You can use the versatile and high-yield crop for silage, grain or grazing
If you’re going to grow corn in northwestern Canada, you’d better . have these three things: the right variety, weed control and the right field. An increasing amount of farmers have it figured out and are producing corn successfully where no one used to grow it. New short season varieties, more weed control options and […] Read more
Big Farms In Africa’s Breadbasket
Africa, for most of us, instills thoughts of hungry children and AIDS. Expansive fields of wheat and soybeans, and new combines chewing their way through bountiful crops grown under irrigation are not images of Africa that spring to mind. But the second is as true of Africa as the first. Although far outnumbered by small-scale […] Read more
10 Reasons To Be Thankful…
One farmer said a farm has to count on a 10 to 20 per cent loss from theft. It’s not just the large farmers who get stolen from either. Every small-scale farmer fears losing a part of his crop to his neighbours or even to his family members. I was in London, England when I […] Read more
These plastic bags provide handy in-field storage to keep the combines rolling, but they have their quirks. Here’s my first-hand account of putting grain in 12,000-bushel tubes
The John Deere 9600 combines groaned as we chewed through the thick swaths, but Loren Koch of Willowmarsh Farms at Jarvie, Alta., was smiling. He had lots to smile about. It was a bountiful crop, and he wouldn’t have any worries about bin space. Loren invested in a Renn grain bagger from Renn Mill Center […] Read more
Working Together, Swiss Style
At first sight, the Swiss seem to have little in common with the Western Canadian farmer. Farm sizes are more likely to resemble those in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia than a grain or cattle farm on the Prairies. But they do have one thing in common — margins are getting tighter and machinery […] Read more
Need Help? Join The Club
You can grow a good canola crop. But can you also market it in a way that leaves you satisfied? This past year has perhaps been one of the most challenging ones to price grain. For many farmers in the Westlock, Barrhead and Clyde counties of Alberta, the Tri-County Marketing Group has been instrumental in […] Read more
Les Properzi farms north of Edmonton in an area not known for malt barley production. Yet he has an 80 per cent success rate over 43 years. What are his secrets?
With fertilizer at unheard-of prices, farmers are scrambling to find crops that will make them a profit. Les Properzi of Westlock, Alta., thinks he has one of the answers — malting barley. Barley will produce like CPS wheat but with significantly lower input costs. The challenge is to achieve malting quality and get the premium […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
