Satellite imagery is one level of data that most digital crop tools use.

Picking the right digital tool for your farm

Have specific goals in mind – and be prepared to make new ones

Glacier FarmMedia – There are a lot of digital farm management tools out there. Which one should you buy into? Why it matters: The number and capability of agronomic and farm business management tools is large and diverse, but they cost money. Knowing which best matches your goals and farm brings a better return on

A certified crop adviser says Canadian farmers are losing close to $3 billion a year due to lost productivity caused by degraded, unhealthy soil.

Tending to your farm’s factory floor: its soil

The health of your farmland can have a big impact on your bottom line

In any manufacturing business productivity is a matter of managing the building, the machinery and the workforce to put the product together in a cost-effective way. In farming, soil is the factory floor and growing a profitable crop is a matter of managing the biology and chemistry of the field within the limits imposed by


Editor’s Take: Rain and high prices

A now-retired farmer friend says he defines a happy coincidence as when high prices and a big crop happen at the same time. But he also ruefully admits it would probably just as well be described as a ‘bloody miracle.’ He farmed more than 50 years and, during a recent text exchange, conceded that, “I

Comment: In praise of processed foods

A new study shows there’s no clear-cut consensus on what ‘processed’ means

Processed foods exist so we can save time, money, and energy. It has made our food systems more efficient over the years. It is all about convenience. In recent years though, the health attributes of processed foods have increasingly come under scrutiny for a variety of biased and unbiased reasons. Many reports by professional and


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Early-pandemic calls to localize supply chains unfounded

With a year's worth of data, three agriculture economists revisit early-pandemic predictions on the food supply chain

With a year's worth of data, three agriculture economists revisit early-pandemic predictions on the food supply chain

A year of data shows early-pandemic calls for radical changes to food systems and risk management programs were unfounded, say some economists. Particularly in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, food supply chains struggled to adapt to changing consumption patterns and processors shut down due to virus outbreaks. “Into that void of uncertainty came

Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and Winnipeg South MP Terry Duguid speak with a panel of Manitoba women in agriculture which was broadcasted live on Facebook on April 27.

Federal ag minister talks childcare with Manitoba farm women

The Liberal government pledged to fund Canada-wide childcare as part of its 2021 budget

The Liberal government pledged to fund Canada-wide childcare as part of its 2021 budget

Farm families need access to flexible childcare to allow women farmers to better balance their lives, the federal ag minister told media and a panel of Manitoba women in agriculture. “If we want Canadian agriculture to be more economically and environmentally sustainable, we must break down the barriers for hard-working women in the sector,” said


File photo of Ontario cropland from the air. (IMNATURE/iStock/Getty Images)

Federal NDP introduces soil health bill

Proposal calls for a National Soil Health Advocate

The federal New Democrats propose to set up a plan they say could help build up Canadian agriculture from the ground down. The NDP’s agriculture critic, British Columbia MP Alistair MacGregor, on Monday introduced a private member’s bill in the Commons to create a national soil health strategy for Canada. The strategy as proposed in

Guest Editorial: Carbon questions loom

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


“French fry?” McIntosh talks potatoes with a youngster in this undated commercial, posted to YouTube nine years ago.

Peak of the Market president to retire after 27 years

A Toronto kid with no ties to agriculture, Larry McIntosh learned to love Manitoba, then its vegetable farmers

The face of Manitoba vegetables, Larry McIntosh, is retiring after 27 years with Peak of the Market. “There’s no question, I’m going to miss the people and the positive environment,” Larry McIntosh told the Co-operator. “I love coming to work every day. We have a lot of fun.” Under McIntosh’s direction as president and CEO,

China seed industry seeks better laws to support innovation

China seed industry seeks better laws to support innovation

Without protection measures on new products, investments will be scarce, sector says

China’s seed regulations need to be overhauled to boost innovation and protect investment in new products, executives said recently, amid a renewed focus on the sector for its critical role in ensuring food security. China’s leadership has said in recent months the country needs a “turnaround” in its seed industry, which is plagued by counterfeit