Cereals & Production Tips

Poor quality cereal seed on deck for 2017

Cereal quality is down across the Prairies, but pulse and soybean seed looks good for 2017

By Angela Lovell April 12, 2017

Farmers across the Prairies will remember 2016 as the year when they had frequent, above-average moisture right through the growing season, delaying both seeding and harvest in many cases. All that moisture means there will be some poor quality cereal seed around for the 2017 season, although the quality of pulses like peas and fava […] Read more

Crops, Weather, Winter Wheat

Mixed conditions loom over Manitoba winter cereals

By GFM Network News April 12, 2017

CNS Canada — A mix of freezing and warming conditions put Manitoba’s winter cereals in uncertain condition, following months of promising weather, according to the head of an industry group. Manitoba’s winter wheat and fall rye crops had ample snow cover throughout the winter, which supported crops, but more recently, conditions turned slushy, then froze […] Read more

Cereals, Crops, Features

Farmers a hit on international crop missions

Buyers of Canadian grains had some questions that only actual producers could answer

By Angela Lovell April 6, 2017

If you want to know about Canadian agriculture you ask a farmer. That was the simple reality that farmers who accompanied industry experts on the 2016 Canadian Wheat New Crop Missions learned fast. “Meeting a producer, and seeing and hearing how the wheat they are buying is grown, stored and delivered are essential parts of […] Read more

Soft white spring wheat. (StonehengeOrganics.com)

Crops, Spring Wheat

Refuge sought for West’s midge-tolerant SWS wheats

By Grainews Staff, GFM Network News April 6, 2017

Refuge seed and other stewardship measures will be needed for the “majority” of soft white spring (SWS) wheat varieties grown on the Prairies, to protect the midge-tolerant trait many of them have now been found to have. That’s the assessment of seed marketing agency SeCan, which sells at least three SWS varieties now found to […] Read more

A two-row Bentley base malt. (RedShedMalting.ca)

Barley, Crops

Growing craft beer sector thirsty for local malt

By GFM Network News April 4, 2017

CNS Canada — Craft breweries are a growing subsector of the Canadian beer industry, but the increased variety of local drink options are not necessarily 100 per cent homegrown, as a lack of domestically produced specialty malts forces brewers to look far afield to meet their needs. “We get our base malt locally, but we […] Read more

Cattleman’s Corner, Cereals, Livestock

Watch out for ergot in grains

Another wet growing and harvest season in 2016 is increasing the level of toxins in some feeds

By Heather Smith Thomas April 4, 2017

Ergot is a fungus that can grow on certain grasses and grain plants when moisture conditions are just right. Ergot becomes a problem mainly after a wet season, rarely during dry conditions. The fungus replaces seed in the seed head with a dark-brown/black mass and produces toxic alkaloids. One or more of the kernels in […] Read more

Cereals, Crops, Features

Winter wheat stands: how thin is too thin?

Give your winter wheat crop time to fill in. Assess your stand in May 

By Lisa McLean April 3, 2017

If you’re used to growing spring wheat, your winter wheat stand in May might seem a little lacking. That’s to be expected, says Paul Thoroughgood, an agronomist with the Western Winter Wheat Initiative. “With winter wheat, growers need to be patient,” he says. “Winter wheat out-yields spring wheat by a sizeable amount most years, but […] Read more

Cereals, Features

Elgin ND wheat meets sellers’ claims

This Canadian northern hard red wheat gave growers high yields and better returns

By Lisa Guenther March 31, 2017

Elgin ND promises high yields and better returns. Do those claims hold up in farmers’ fields? Two growers who tried out the new variety last year share their experience. North Dakota State University plant breeders developed Elgin ND as a high-yielding milling variety. They first distributed it south of the border in 2013. In Canada, […] Read more

Cereals, Crops, Dairy Cattle

Ukraine farmers examine Canadian agriculture co-ops

By Grainews Staff, GFM Network News March 31, 2017

A delegation of Ukrainian farmers were visiting agriculture co-ops this week, looking to see if the approach can benefit their grain businesses in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. In Ontario they visited Agris Co-op and Great Lakes Grain in Chatham, Agrico fertilizer storage outside London, an Agromart retail operation in Wellburn, and the Donkers’ dairy goat farm […] Read more

In affected spots in the wheat field, the plants had white heads and dried-up flag leaves. Something was causing the wheat to turn white, but what?

Cereals, Crops

Crop Advisor’s Casebook: Crop trouble follows a pattern

A Crop Advisor's Solution from the April 28, 2015 issue of Grainews

By Rachelle Farrell March 30, 2017

It was back at harvest time the previous year when I received my first SOS about a particular field problem from Joe, who grows canola, wheat and barley on his farm at Morinville, Alta. The performance of his barley crop just wasn’t up to snuff — yield was way down as a result of numerous […] Read more

GFM Network News

Prolonged drought causes unprecedented productivity loss: Study

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Trump plan to import Argentine beef angers U.S. farmers

Cereals