Darcy Herauf, director of the AgExpert division at FCC, speaks at AgDays in January 2024.

Stormy skies for cloud-based farm tech

Trust dilemma adds turbulence to ag data integration

Cloud-based software developers face a dilemma when trying to crack the agricultural market. On one hand, integrating all the on-farm data they can gather with government systems, equipment manufacturers and other software companies could help farmers manage productivity and make decisions easier. On the other hand, farmers worry that those same developers might turn the


(File photo by Dave Bedard)

Canada bumps up wheat harvest view, trims canola estimate

StatCan releases yield outlook as of Aug. 31

Winnipeg | Reuters — Canadian farmers will harvest slightly more wheat and a bit less canola than expected earlier in summer, but dry conditions will keep both crops small, a government report showed on Thursday. Farms in North and South America, Europe and Australia are facing crop losses as extreme weather spreads over an unusually

John Deere’s 8R autonomous tractor is pictured at Jensen Test Farm at Bondurant, Iowa, just northeast of Des Moines, on April 28, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/Bianca Flowers)

Deere tapping into Apple-like tech model to drive revenue

'Hopefully the costs will be paid back in the long run'

Bondurant, Iowa | Reuters — Deere and Co. has sold its tractors and other equipment to farmers for decades, but the world’s largest agriculture machinery manufacturer is tearing a page from the technology world’s playbook — combining cutting-edge hardware with software and subscription models to drive revenue growth. In a world with a dwindling number


File photo of wheat being loaded onto a bulk vessel at port in Russia. (YGrek/iStock/Getty Images)

Russia’s agriculture ministry pauses grain harvesting data

Moscow | Reuters — Russia’s agriculture ministry has paused its daily publication of grain harvesting data while it refines the reporting format used by the country’s growing regions, the ministry said Wednesday. Russia is the world’s largest wheat exporter, supplying it mainly to Africa and the Middle East. It competes with the European Union and

(Conservis.ag)

Telus, Rabobank ag arms buy into farm data aggregator

Companies join in on deal for Minneapolis-based Conservis

The agriculture arms of one of Canada’s major telecoms providers and a major Dutch bank and financial services firm are taking a stake in a tech firm in the business of gathering on-farm data into a single window. Telus Agriculture and Rabo AgriFinance, which is headquartered in St. Louis and serves U.S. farm customers, announced


A DOT (now OmniPower) autonomous unit at work on the Olds College Smart Farm. (Olds College video screengrab via YouTube)

College farms, GFM Discovery Farm to get smarter together

Two Alberta colleges sign on for new CAAIN-backed network

A pair of Alberta college farms and Glacier FarmMedia’s Saskatchewan farm are the first to plug into a national network of “smart farms” to improve the ag sector’s smart technology experience. The Olds College Smart Farm will lead the Pan-Canadian Smart Farm Network, which will also include Glacier FarmMedia Discovery Farm at Langham, Sask. and

Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA’s logo on a tower in Jundiai, northwest of Sao Paulo in southeastern Brazil, on June 1, 2017. (File photo: Reuters/Paulo Whitaker)

JBS says it paid US$11 million in bitcoin for ransom

Cyberattack disrupted plants in North America, Australia

Reuters — Meatpacker JBS USA paid a ransom equivalent to US$11 million (C$13.3 million) following a cyberattack that disrupted its North American and Australian operations, the company’s CEO said in a statement Wednesday. The subsidiary of Brazilian firm JBS halted cattle slaughtering at all of its U.S. plants and its Alberta beef plant for a


Farmers Edge’s online event on March 3 included a congratulatory note from TMX Group, owner of the TSX. (Farmers Edge video screengrab)

Farmers Edge launches IPO

Digital ag firm makes first public share offering to big demand

Manitoba’s best-known digital agriculture firm is now a publicly-traded company. Farmers Edge, founded in 2005 in Pilot Mound, Man. by agronomists Wade Barnes and Curtis MacKinnon, has carved out a niche using field-centric data, artificial intelligence and its FarmCommand data management platform. CEO Wade Barnes called it an exciting day during an online press conference

(LakelandCollege.ca)

Alberta’s Lakeland to offer ag tech degree

College to launch first-in-Canada program in September

East-central Alberta’s Lakeland College is set to offer what’s billed as Canada’s first degree program in agriculture technology, as a two-year post-credential program, starting in September. The program, announced Wednesday, will consist of full-time studies at Lakeland’s campus at Vermilion, about 180 km east of Edmonton, plus “experiential learning practicums” off campus, en route to