
Author Archives

Five tips to help get your best pulse crop yields
At this year’s CropSphere in Saskatoon, the Saskatchewan Pulse Grower’s agronomy manager, Sherrilyn Phelps, talked to growers about optimizing pea and lentil yields.The biggest factor that determines yield, weather, is out of our control. However, there are some factors we can manage. Phelps’s presentation focused on factors that we can control.For Saskatchewan, the SPG has

Five ways to help keep blackleg out of your fields
Three out of four fields in Western Canada are showing blackleg,” said Justine Cornelson, agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada. For the last 10 years or so, the incidence of blackleg has been low on the Prairies, but lately, she said, “we’re starting to see a slight trend upwards.” Cornelson was speaking at

Farmers Edge to use data to edge into insurance sector
Farmers Edge has signed a four-year agreement with global reinsurance company PartnerRe to bring precision farming technology together with ag insurance. Under the agreement announced this week, the two companies plan to work together to develop new insurance products for the agricultural market. While Canadian farmers have access to government-run, subsidized crop insurance programs, as

Adding an agronomist to your farm team
As farming gets more complicated a growing number of companies are offering to help out. Some farmers get advice from their local independent retailer, or an agronomist employed by a company like CPS. But more and more farmers are choosing to pay for agronomic advice. Based on the logo-covered trucks parked at farm shows, the

Five farm bookkeeping systems
Unless you hire it out or do it the old-fashioned way with a pencil and a ledger, every farm business needs a software solution for bookkeeping. In honour of the “back to the books” feeling that comes with autumn, this is a survey of farm bookkeeping software on the market today. It’s not absolutely necessary

BASF’s new Canadian stake to include three plants, 300 staff
Among the major players still in the world’s crop protection and seed business, remaining competitive comes at a cost. To be sure, several smaller companies remain in the game — but with marriages now consummated for Dow Chemical and DuPont, and for Syngenta and ChemChina, Bayer’s pending takeover of Monsanto and, now, BASF getting set

Heat LQ cleared for pre-harvest use in wheat, barley
Wheat, durum and barley growers have a new pre-harvest herbicide option now that BASF has received Codex maximum residue limits (MRLs) for its product Heat LQ. While “there were probably some wheat acres already harvested,” according to Dan Packer, BASF’s cereals crop manager, this agreement will provide an additional pre-harvest option for farmers who still

Saskatchewan budget seen as costly touch for farms
Saskatchewan’s general farm organization is consulting its farmer members on less-discussed features of last month’s provincial budget, while warning them to brace for impact from new budget-related costs. The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan last Monday wrapped up its latest round of spring district meetings, at all six of which APAS general manager Duane Haave

Talk to a lawyer before the inevitable
Death, divorce, disability and disagreement. While not all are inevitable, Laura McDougald-Williams, a partner in the Meighen Haddad Law Firm told an audience at CropConnect in Winnipeg in mid-February that it’s wise to protect your farm against the “4 Ds.”

Five ways to avoid payroll fines
Just hired your first employee? Don’t get stuck paying fines for filing errors
Have you recently hired an employee for your farm? Are you doing your own payroll and bookkeeping? If so, I’m offering you an opportunity to learn from my mistakes. There is a lot of information available about conducting job interviews, creating job descriptions and deciding how much to pay employees. However, it’s hard to find
With roots going back to 1925, each weekly issue of the Manitoba Co-operator contains production, marketing and policy news selected for relevance to crops and livestock producers in Manitoba.