Following the snow in parts of Alberta on Monday, weather models are indicating the 2014 growing season will likely come to an end across much of Western Canada this week. It's not what any farmers want to hear, but the first widespread killing frost is expected to arrive over the next few nights, says Drew... Read More
Category: Crops
Representatives from across Canada's soybean industry have joined together to form Soy Canada, "a national voice to drive growth and progress for the sector," according to a press release. To date, 27 organizations and companies representing the entire value chain have signed a letter of intent to support the formation of the organization, with an... Read More
Challenges with getting this year’s canola crop off the field are shortening the window for seeding winter wheat. While canola stubble is the preferred seed bed for winter wheat, a delayed growing season and untimely rains over the last few weeks have resulted in canola harvest running later than normal in much of Western Canada.... Read More
Coming off the long weekend in North America, the grains market started the month of September trying to hold onto higher levels on varying weather affecting crop development and the situation continuing to unfold in eastern Europe. While reports vary on a proposed ceasefire between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists, the latest rumour to... Read More
When it comes to diseases that rob canola yields, blackleg often doesn't get the credit it deserves. Many farmers underestimate the significance of blackleg, says Bruce McKinnon, an agronomist with Dekalb in Alberta, in the video below. "Blackleg is a powerful disease that seems to be able to adapt to whatever we throw at it.... Read More
Commercial beekeeper Hugh Simpson believes farmers and beekeepers have to collaborate, communicate and co-operate to ensure Ontario's bee population remains strong and healthy. Simpson is a founding member of the Independent Commercial Beekeepers Organization. The group was founded by like-minded beekeepers who make a living keeping bees as livestock based on economics, logic and practical... Read More
By Larry Martin As this is written, December corn futures have traded in a range between US $3.81 and $3.58 for six weeks, since mid-July. This range came after a precipitous drop from the $5.00 area in April and May. Everyone is trying to guess where the market’s going from here. Of course no one... Read More
Once upon a time, something like a cabbage and a turnip-like plant engaged in a very "fortuitous cross pollination" and a new species was born, first known as oilseed rape, and then further cross-bred to become the human-consumption form, canola. It's this cross-pollination so long ago that has made mapping of the canola genome a... Read More
With seed companies preparing for an expansion in corn acres across the prairies, farmers considering growing Roundup Ready corn for the first time are wondering whether it fits in crop rotations that already include Roundup Ready canola. The concern is the introduction of another glyphosate-tolerant crop could complicate management of volunteer forms of corn or... Read More
The law firm of Siskinds LLP, based at London, Ont., has launched a class action regarding neonicotinoid pesticides, specifically those containing imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiomethoxam, designed, developed, marketed and produced by Bayer (as Bayer CropScience) and Syngenta. The action, set in motion by Sun Parlor and Munro Honey, seeks in excess of $400 million in... Read More