Without weed control, Ontario soybean growers would lose an estimated $617 million. That’s the number estimated by Peter Sikkema, professor and field crop weed management expert at the University of Guelph, Ridgetown. His figure is based on a per-bushel price of $12.56. With current prices, the cost of inaction on weed management could be even […] Read more
How to keep soybeans weed-free
Design weed control plans to help the crop out-compete problem weeds
How to grow better wheat
Participants in 2022 YEN competition share their strategies
There’s more than one way to grow high-yielding wheat, but focusing on soil health and measuring the impact of different practices are places to start. Those are two things that grain producers Norm Lamothe and Andy Timmerman of Cavan and Stratford, as well as Jeffery Krohn from Elkton, Michigan, say have helped improve their wheat […] Read more
Quinlan Farms wins Essex conservation award
Award given for investments in soil and water health, production diversity
The Essex Soil and Crop Improvement Association (ESCIA) and Essex Region Conservation Authority (ERCA) recently bestowed the 2022 Conservation Farm of the Year Award to Quinlan Farms, a mixed crop, poultry and sheep business in central Essex. Granted annually to a farm within Essex County that displays conservation-minded management practices, Quinlan Farms received the award […] Read more
Farmer meetings aim to reduce isolation and stress
SHED Talk project aims to generate grassroots support networks
Goderich-based non-profit Gateway Rural Health has launched a farmer meeting series to build grassroots mental health support networks in rural Ontario. The Sustaining Healthy Farms Through Empowerment and Dedication, or “SHED Talk” project, is a series of interactive discussion sessions for members of the farming community. The sessions feature speakers covering different aspects of mental […] Read more
‘Black Swan’ events affecting Ontario fertilizers, says report
Report outlines short and long-term solutions, and the need to remove fertilizer tariff
A new report commissioned by Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO) details long and short-term measures which can stabilize and insulate farmers in eastern Canada from fertilizer market turbulence. Many recommendations for achieving longer term supply security would require high dollar investments, however, made more challenging in volatile political environments. In the short term, logistical challenges […] Read more
Full-province representation in latest wheat yield competition
2022 YEN competition sees more participants, which means more modelling data for predicting potential wheat yields next year
Ontario wheat growers hit yields of close to 150 bushels per acre in the second year of the Great Lakes Yield Enhancement Network (YEN). The YEN included 18 Ontario winter wheat field locations, but expanded to include 50 Ontario field sites for the 2021-22 competition. That added more information to the understanding of wheat production […] Read more
Public trust in Canada’s food system comes off pandemic high
Cost of living and other factors drive a return to pre-2020 consumer perceptions
After a pandemic-induced boost, the latest public trust report from the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity indicates Canadians’ faith in the food system has fallen back to general historical trends. As the 2022 CCFI Public Trust Research Report describes, 24 per cent of survey respondents believe the food system is headed in the wrong direction, […] Read more
Western Fair District develops food and ag-product hub
Organization matches District’s Accelerator and Incubator programs to production space for developing companies
There’s a lot of construction at the Western Fair District, all in efforts to spur more made-in-Ontario innovation in food and agricultural products. The Grove (formerly known as The Progress Building) is in the midst of renovations designed to give new food companies, as well as those in the pre-commercialization stage, a space to work […] Read more
Fertilizer: The long view
For Ontario, spring fertilizer to stay expensive. Internationally, the global nitrogen supply tightens
Supply is tight but flowing and the product is costly but available. Given current domestic and international realities, the same is likely to be said about fertilizer in spring 2023. Making specific predictions about the markets for fertilizer is difficult, particularly for nitrogen, but there are ways to improve supply chain resiliency. Russel Hurst, executive […] Read more
Comment: You are what you eat
There’s a reason it’s called a social media feed
Social media is undermining our shared reality, and those of us in the agriculture sector need to take better note of the trend. Why? Because not doing so could result in a continued separation between rural and urban Canada – as well as one another. Social media is a drug of sorts, in that it […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
