An uninspiring election could be an opportunity for agriculture inroads
Reading Time: 3 minutes The federal election has been a bit of a snoozer so far, with no defining issues and little widespread attachment to any of the parties and leaders. Movement in the polls started in late August with a hint that in the absence of any defining reason to call an election, the electorate questioned the prime […] Read moreTag Archives editorial
Editorial: Local counts during election campaigns
Editorial: The need for more efficient nitrogen
Reading Time: 3 minutes Reducing use of nitrogen fertilizer is a big potential win for farmers and critics of farm practices. The discovery of the Haber-Bosch process and its ability to pull molecular nitrogen from the air is one of the foundations of modern society. Nitrogen fertilizer allowed farmers to feed crops and people as yields grew. They can […] Read more
Editorial: Time for another Hay West?
Ontario farmers have many reasons to be thankful
Reading Time: 3 minutes People look at me strangely sometimes when I make the case that Ontario is one of the best places in the world to farm. There are always struggles in farming and when you deal with your package of farming challenges it feels tough. Ontario has its issues — urban encroachment, expensive land and a unique […] Read more
Editorial: The two routes to agriculture minister
Reading Time: 3 minutes Lisa Thompson was recently named the new minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for Ontario, another in a line of female agriculture ministers from Huron-Bruce. I’ve known Thompson for a long time and she’s spent her life in agriculture. I remember riding the bus while I was taking the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program (AALP) […] Read more
Editorial: Farmers have a YEN for more useful data
Reading Time: 3 minutes I was sitting in the livestock pavilion at the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown Campus during the SouthWest Agricultural Conference when I first heard about yield enhancement networks and thought they were a great idea. A cross-border version of the Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) was recently announced for wheat in Ontario and Michigan. It aims to […] Read more
Editorial: The thorny issue of people on your land
Reading Time: 3 minutes There are more people roaming around rural Ontario during the pandemic and that’s increased concerns about trespassing and trash that finds its way onto farms. We live on a corner property and one of the side roads that runs along our farm is a no-winter-maintenance road. Early in the pandemic it became a magnet for […] Read more
Editorial: Will agriculture seize the moment?
Reading Time: 3 minutes There’s growing interest from outside the traditional agriculture world in what’s happening on the farm and the arrival of new ideas and people will change the sector in ways we can’t yet predict. I continue to hear stories from people about academics with no connection to agriculture becoming involved in agriculture research. Consultants say they […] Read more
Editorial: Inflation worries
Gen Xers have enjoyed the stability the economic system has given them
Reading Time: 3 minutes I’ve been lucky to have spent most of my adult life in very stable economic times. Interest rates have been low and steady. Global trade and economic growth have been measured and predictable. Governments mostly spent within their means. Then the pandemic roiled trading systems, supply chains and supply and demand and that’s made me […] 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
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
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Fall fertility and pulse marketability
September 16, 2021- Listen Now →
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