Reading Time: 3 minutes This looks like it will be a good summer to be a hog farmer, as an unexpected drop in sows in the United States is driving up hog prices. Other commodities have been rising in value over the past eight months and it looks like hog farmers will get some of that momentum. Why it […] Read more
Author Archives
Hog trends and innovations
Researchers are challenging some long-held assumptions of pig management
Opinion: Following science, not ideology, critical in carbon debate
Reading Time: 3 minutes The march to some sort of agricultural carbon economy is on and it’s integral that we get it right if we go down this road. Policy can’t be driven by politics and ideology. Unfortunately, the science of carbon sequestration continues to be fuzzy, which leaves open the opportunity for opinion to guide the policy. There […] Read more
Holstein breeder puts focus on milk in new barn
Comestar Holsteins aims to fill 1000 kg of quota from cows in 586 stalls in the automated milking barn
Reading Time: 3 minutes The evolution of elite dairy breeder Comestar Holsteins is a good indicator of the future of Canadian dairy farming, with greater focus on milk production instead of genetics. Comestar, the Victoriaville, Que. dairy farm, has been a prodigious provider of top dairy females and bulls around the world over the past 30 years and recently […] Read more
Ontario farmland value growth lower than national average
Some areas of the province, especially around cities, saw higher farmland value increase
Reading Time: 3 minutes A tight market for farmland in Canada and good crop prices continue to drive increasing land value, although the increase in Ontario in 2020 was lower than in 2019. Farm Credit Canada (FCC) recently released its 2020 farmland value report, which showed a 4.7 per cent increase in Ontario values, compared to a 6.7 per […] Read more
Editorial: Lessons from political speeches
Reading Time: 3 minutes There’s rarely enough news in politician visits to farmer group meetings to justify a report. Sometimes there’s an announcement to be made and then they let the farm media know in advance that we need to pay attention. The script is usually similar: Tell farmers, with exact numbers, how many members they have in their […] Read more
Dismissing big lever economic thinking
Economies change in unpredictable ways and so will agriculture, says business professor
Reading Time: 4 minutes The pursuit of efficiency in business has not produced the results that most people are looking for, says business professor and author Roger Martin. Martin, a professor emeritus at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, says that in complex systems like economies, not every direction has a healthy outcome and systems […] Read more
Attention to detail keeps planters running precisely
Wear points can have an effect on many parts of planter operation
Reading Time: 4 minutes Careful planter maintenance can eliminate problems at the moment of seed placement that have to be corrected later at expense and with a loss of profits. “I’m not going to go out and replant one row because I identified on my planter that I had a row failing for the first 30 acres, the first […] Read more
Abnormal La Nina plays havoc with weather predictions
Spring is expected to be wet, with a drier summer, says meteorologist
Reading Time: 2 minutes Farmers are likely to get one more hit of winter before the weather clears up for spring planting. The polar vortex could be forced back into the middle of North America by another building high pressure system, says Mike McClellan, of Mobile Weather Team Inc., during a recent webinar put on by Great Lakes Grain. […] Read more
Editorial: Lessons from an enthusiastic agriculture IPO
Reading Time: 3 minutes Farmers Edge has gone public on the TSX, the stock exchange in Toronto, and the large interest around it saw share price rise quickly after the launch. The company is a Winnipeg-based provider of data-driven agronomy and farm management services. An initial public offering (IPO) allows a company to raise funds and sell ownership of […] Read more
Survey aims to build cover crop data
There’s lots yet to learn about cover crop use in Ontario
Reading Time: < 1 minute A survey conducted for the Ontario Cover Crops Steering Committee aims to improve understanding around levels of cover crop use in Ontario. The survey is open to the end of March. Callum Morrison, a PhD student at the University of Manitoba is conducting the survey on behalf of the Ontario group. A Prairie survey on […] Read more
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