Young Farmer Carrying a Bale of Hay

Health care benefits for your farm

Farm Management: Health plans can protect your family and help you attract farm employees

Most farmer operators assume that health care benefits are only for people with off-farm jobs. Farmers usually pay for their own massage therapy and trips for the dentist. Farm employees aren’t always offered the same benefits they could get from non-farm employers. But, there are health care plan options for farmers. Buying an extended health […] Read more

Michael Hicks first realized he had wild boar on his pasture after setting up a game camera over Thanksgiving. After Hicks shot two of the pigs, the rest scattered. But one pig keeps returning. Hicks thinks it lost its mate after the scramble, and is hoping to reunite. Note the long hair.

Wild boar cause trouble on farms

There are many feral wild boar across the Prairies, but few of us will ever actually see them

Michael Hicks likes to talk about wildlife. The Glaslyn-area farmer still chuckles about the time he watched a black bear stand as high as it could on its hind legs, longing for out-of-reach oats in a grain truck. But just after Thanksgiving, Hicks’ game camera recorded something new in his pasture near Thunderchild Reserve, in northwestern […] Read more


Five risky situations for stored canola

Five risky situations for stored canola

Agronomist Greg Sekulic explains how you can get your canola safely through the winter

Last winter, western Canadian canola growers reported rising temperatures in canola bins. The reasons for the heating were many, and most could have been avoided had the bins been regularly checked. To further reduce the risk of spoilage, keep in mind these tips, provided by the Canola Council of Canada’s agronomy specialist, Greg Sekulic. 1. Temperature risk […] Read more

Liquid hog manure is liquid gold

It’s expensive to transport, but farmers near hog operations like the benefits

Liquid manure — particularly liquid hog manure, which is more readily available than solid or semi-solid manures — has always been viewed as a valuable nutrient source for field crop production. But it’s expensive to transport, so access is localized near hog operations. “I talk to a lot of growers growing oilseeds and cereals, and […] Read more


Farmers ahead of carbon curve

Farmers ahead of carbon curve

Farmers practise soil management, and play an active part in carbon sequestration

Carbon sequestration” is a term with plenty of traction these days. Technically speaking, it refers to long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to help mitigate the fallout from climate change — a subject that increasingly figures on Canada’s agendas. In agriculture, carbon sequestration finds a home in discussions about soil management […] Read more

“It is 
a natural 
process and 
we want 
to take 
advantage 
of that.”  – Jim Radtke.

Herbicide tolerant canola, but not GMO

An SU-tolerant canola is just the first of what Cibus hopes will be a long list of trait improvements

Jim Radtke may not be a gene whisperer, but his California-based plant genetics company, Cibus, has developed technology that allows it to communicate with and influence plant genes to produce desired traits. Whether it be something like herbicide resistance, or drought tolerance in field crops, or producing a different-colored petal in a flower, as examples, […] Read more


Zero tillage can increase P loss

Zero tillage can increase P loss

Phosphorus can drain off the soil during snowmelt. Periodic tillage may reduce the losses

The latest soil-management recommendation will come as a surprise: In some cases, producers should consider periodic tillage to reduce the risk of phosphorus (P) loss from conservation tillage systems. According to Don Flaten, a professor in the University of Manitoba’s Department of Soil Science, zero tillage actually increases P loading from soils to surface water […] Read more

blackleg infection on a canola stem

‘Canola and snow’ is not profitable

New research says mixing cultivars does not mitigate the effects of continuous canola

Reconsider those plans to seed back-to-back to canola this spring, recommend Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) scientists. And they have new data to back that up. Dr. Neil Harker and other study researchers recently published the results of their five-year of the effects of continuous canola crops in The Canadian Journal of Plant Science. The […] Read more


Justice Willard Estey’s transportation review in the 1990s suggested open access on grain lines.

Rail revenue control a compromise

U of S prof points out that the option was allowing other carriers on CP and CN lines

When it comes to understanding the present state of Canada’s grain transportation, it’s worth knowing a little history. Back in the late 1990s, Justice Willard Estey chaired a grain handling and transportation system review, and recommended more rail competition, including open running rights. Canadian Pacific proposed the Maximum Revenue Entitlement (MRE), otherwise known as the […] Read more

Most grain bin entrapment accidents occur due to out-of-condition stored grain.

Bin safety starts with grain quality

Farm Safety: Train yourself and your farm employees to avoid tragic grain bin accidents

Every year we hear tragic stories of deaths associated with grain bin entrapments. Despite continued efforts, the accidents keep happening. While it’s always good practice to remind farm staff of grain bin safety protocols, injuries and deaths could be dramatically reduced simply by eliminating their number one cause: storing out-of-condition grain. “Virtually all entrapment events […] Read more