Horticulture – Grainews

Kubota's KATR autonomous off-road machine is designed to be the foundation for a system that can carry out a range of farming (and other off-road) tasks.

Ag brands show more autonomy, EV innovation at CES

Kubota, John Deere unveil new concept and production models

By Scott Garvey January 8, 2025

A decade or two ago no one likely would have imagined the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas would become the chosen venue for farm equipment brands to debut their machines. But in the last couple of years, major brands have started to use it to reveal their newest technologies. This year Kubota was back […] Read more

Features, Grapes

Geena Luckett

Outstanding Young Farmers 2024: The glamour in the wine takes hard work among the vines

By Lee Hart November 8, 2024

Owning and operating a vineyard isn’t quite as glamorous as Geena Luckett imagined during her university days, as her dad was establishing Luckett’s Vineyard in Nova Scotia’s Gaspereau Valley, not far from the Bay of Fundy. After starting out as an events manager at the winery, then learning about all other aspects of the business, […] Read more

Quebec OYF nominees Alison Blouin and Simon Plante among the strawberries on the Polyculture Plante farm.

Features, Fruit/Vegetables

Simon Plante and Alison Blouin

Outstanding Young Farmers 2024: Its acres capped by geography, this market garden operation seeks to grow more per acre

By Lee Hart November 8, 2024

Increasing production on the same land base, which in turn will help make more marketing opportunities possible— that’s the goal of a young Quebec farming couple heading up a second-generation fruit and vegetable operation near Quebec City. Investing heavily in new production technology on the family-owned Polyculture Plante, located at Sainte-Pétronille on Île d’Orléans, is […] Read more

Small paper envelopes stored in a closed glass jar in a cool dark space is an ideal containment method.

Columns, Farm Life, Fruit/Vegetables

Harvest, part 3: Saving seeds

First We Eat: Select the best from your fall harvest to bring forward in spring

By dee Hobsbawn-Smith October 28, 2024

Some years ago, I went on a road trip — a research tour for a book I envisioned writing about small-scale organic and sustainable farmers in Western Canada. I drove from my home in Calgary through the mountains into the verdant interior valleys of B.C., then west to the coast, to Vancouver Island and up […] Read more

Columns, Farm Life

Harvest, part 1: Garnishing summer greens

First We Eat: In the dog days of summer, salads with protein can help dial down the heat needed for food prep

By dee Hobsbawn-Smith September 18, 2024

We’ve been in deep summer heat for weeks now after a rainy spring, and every plant in my yard — including the quack grass and chickweed — is consumed with the green fuse of growth. The result is a cornucopia of everything. The scarlet runner beans and snow peas twining around their bamboo stakes tower […] Read more

Canola, Columns, Fruit/Vegetables, Practical Tips

Canola in the U.S. South

Practical Research: Introducing massive acreage of new crops in established growing areas can put both new and established crops at risk

By Ieuan Evans September 2, 2024

Every so often I hear about how farmers in the southern states of the U.S. will soon be growing millions of acres of canola. Of course, what would be grown would be winter canola, since crucifers such as cabbage, collard and broccoli all can survive the Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee winters. They get […] Read more

Crops, Features, Weather

Moving from dry to wet

Improved moisture conditions can mean different strategies

By Don Norman July 3, 2024

Farmers in Western Canada can breathe easy. Rains across most of the Prairies this spring have gone a long way toward recharging groundwater levels and lowering the risk of drought across the region. “We had an extremely warm winter with lower-than-normal precipitation in most areas,” says Trevor Hadwen, agroclimate specialist for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. […] Read more

Keeping reference materials current for the farming community could help ward off weeds and pests before they become endemic.

Columns, Crops, Practical Tips

Recognize the value of books, fact sheets, texts

Practical Research: Don’t assume that your phone will have all the answers at hand

By Ieuan Evans June 15, 2024

During my long tenure with Alberta Agriculture we, as a crop protection unit, produced many farmer information presentations, fact sheets, books, booklets, broadcasts and seminars. From 2000 onward, Alberta Agriculture severely cut down on this and other farm information units. The books and fact sheets are fully relevant today but they need upgrading and maintenance, […] Read more

Crops, Features, Weather

Prairie soils’ organic carbon climbing

Data from StatCan and AAFC highlight positive changes made in agriculture since the 1980s

By Robert Arnason June 13, 2024

Glacier FarmMedia — For much of the last five years, the federal government has been setting targets for Canadian farmers to reduce nitrous oxide emissions from fertilizer and methane emissions from cattle. The government has provided funding to help producers cut methane and nitrous oxide emissions from primary agriculture, while constantly beating the drumbeat of […] Read more

Crops, Features

The ground squirrel survey says…

Saskatchewan has surveyed farmers to get a new read on Richardson’s ground squirrel populations and on-farm damage

By Jim Timlick May 13, 2024

Richardson’s ground squirrel damage has frustrated Saskatchewan farmers for years. Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Agriculture recently conducted a survey of farmers to better understand where Richardson’s ground squirrels are present, the methods producers use to deal with them, and which approaches are most effective. The online survey was conducted this past December and January. A total […] Read more

Alberta crop conditions improve: report

U.S. grains: Corn sets contract lows on expectations for big US crop

U.S. livestock: Cattle strength continues

GFM Network News