Steven Sirksi describes his working holiday in Australia, and tells you how you can get a job on a farm Down Under
The working holiday scheme demonstrates that it doesn’t take much to travel. Although you will have to front the cost of the visa and airfare, once you lock in your job, especially on a farm, you’ll find that you’re able to repay your debts fairly quickly. (The visa and the airfare are both tax deductible.) I worked a […] Read more
Western Canadian researchers hope to give new canola cultivars a shot in the peduncle by introducing genes from other plants
The Canadian Triticale Biorefinery Initiative is out of funding, but research into bio-industrial uses for triticale is still underway
Triticale, a human-made hybrid of wheat and rye, has never seen the demand enjoyed by its cereal cousins in Canada. Traditionally, western Canadian farmers have largely avoided using triticale in their rotations due to limited marketing opportunities. While triticale boasts high yields and high biomass, along with added benefits such as disease resistance and high […] Read moreControlling wild oats is not an easy task. But researchers hope a six-year study will reveal a recipe to manage wild oats with fewer herbicides
Wild oats is one of our most common weeds and the weed we spend the most money on in terms of herbicides every year. And of course resistance is building up,” said Eric Johnson, weed biologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Johnson said that there aren’t many herbicide groups available to control wild oats. Group 1 and […] Read moreWith new higher-yielding carinata varieties on the market, farmers have another oilseed to add to their rotations
In the mid-19th century, Captain John Palliser described the region that now includes southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan as a desert or semi-desert, and deemed the area unsuitable for settlers. Despite climatic limitations, farmers have settled Palliser’s Triangle, and they now have another hardy oilseed to add to their rotations — carinata, also known as Ethiopian mustard. […] Read moreSoybean acreage in Manitoba and Saskatchewan has rocketed up in recent years. Most of this growth is due to Ron Gendzelevich
If you ask western Canadian farmers when soybeans were first commercially grown in Manitoba, most would probably guess sometime around 1998. But soybeans have actually been grown in Manitoba for much longer than that — since 1992. Their numbers have increased dramatically with thanks almost entirely to one man, Ron Gendzelevich, owner and President of […] Read moreHere’s an app that will help you find directions to a land location and show you the satellite image
Have you ever agreed to do some custom work for a neighbour or friend, but they didn’t have time to show you the exact field? The Prairie Locator app can help you with this problem if you’re in Alberta, Saskatchewan or Manitoba. With this app you can search multiple land locations to get the latitude, […] Read moreSome soils are more susceptible to herbicide carryover than others, and herbicides from some groups are more prone to cause problems
On-farm traceability, and the paperwork that comes with it, is going to become more common, whether farmers want it or not, says an on-farm auditor
It’s going to be, in the long run, more about consumer confidence. And not necessarily in regards to safety of food, but in the sustainability of the food — where it’s coming from and that’s it’s being produced in a sound way,” says Jodi Holzman, auditor with Control Union Canada. Holzman has audited about 100 […] Read more
