“Was no discussion about closing borders.” – agriculture minister rosann wowchuk Canada’s NAFTA trading partners won’t seize the opportunity of an H1N1 outbreak in Canadian hogs to close their borders to live animal imports – nor would Canada do the same – according to Manitoba’s Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives Rosann Wowchuk. Discussions
No Risk Of U. S., Mexico Border Closures Over H1N1, Says Wowchuk
NAFTA Trade Delegates Denounce “Mischaracterization” Of H1N1
It’s time to stop calling H1N1 the “swine flu.” As they wrapped up the 19th annual meeting of the Tri-National Agricultural Accord in Gimli on Aug. 14, delegates from Canada, Mexico and the United States issued a joint appeal to the media and health officials to end the practice of using “technically incorrect” and inflammatory
Upgrade For Weather Station Network’s Capabilities
The CWB-WeatherBug network across Western Canada already numbers some 650 sites with the incoming data used to predict wheat midge, fusarium and sclerotinia risk. But soon there might be even more information wrung from the raw numbers collected by the network of solar-powered, “micro-weather stations” and put into the hands of farmers, says Guy Ash,
High-Tech Tricks Save Chemical
“You start thinking, jeez, I wonder if we should be spraying this field?” – TERRY ABERHART A thick, even stand of canola makes it easy to justify investing in a fungicide application to ward off sclerotinia. But what if it suddenly thins out because of frost, too wet, too dry, uneven germination or too much
On The Boyd Ranch, The Grass Is Stirrup High
On the Boyd ranch near Brookdale, the grass is lush, green and stirrup high. It’s like the cowboy’s prayer come true. Even the solar-powered pump pulls water up into a portable trough from a grassy-banked, tree-sheltered water hole that runs cool, clear and deep. A visitor from the parched southwest might suspect such phenomenal pasture
Stunted Roots Need Help, Says Plant Nutrition Expert
Drought conditions aren’t necessarily a precursor to stunted growth and reduced yields, a European plant nutrition expert told farmers attending an Agri-Trends field day recently. Volker Rmheld, a plant nutritionist from Hohenheim University in Stuttgart, Germany, said that more intelligent use of fertilizer, such as placement, banding or foliar application, could be used to salvage
Early Adopter Finds Mixed Results With High-Tech Tools
Profit in modern farming is all about getting more yield for less inputs. Grandpa’s draft horses could gee and haw on a dime, but gigantic equipment, such as a 60-foot air seeder or a 100-foot boom sprayer, can’t easily be stopped in its tracks or manoeuvered around the natural variations in the landscape or soil
Mixed Results With Golden Oldies
“Generally, they are forgotten wheats, but hopefully, we can keep them alive for future generations.” – SCOTT CHALMERS The ancient grains, placed right next to plots of the latest high-yielding barley varieties, may look like poor cousins to their modern descendants. They may not stand as tall, or yield as heavily, but they still have
Feed Grain Co-Op Plans To Register Two New Varieties Next Spring
Rumours of their imminent demise were greatly exaggerated. The Western Feed Grains Development Co-op, which was formed in 2005 with the goal of putting high-yielding, fusariumresistant feed wheat varieties in the hands of farmers, not companies, voted at its annual general meeting last week to continue its efforts. A funding shortfall has been temporarily resolved,
Hit And Miss A Hit At Thresherman’s Reunion
If your tractor sounded like this, you’d be bracing yourself for a major repair bill. With disturbing irregularity, the sound of detonating gasoline inside the 10-inch bore of a 25-hpType C IHC Mogul model 25 chuffed its way out of straight pipe directly out of the cylinder head. Each explosion inside the 1,105-cubic-inch cylinder was
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
