Seeding smartphone tips

Seeding smartphone tips

Cellphones have been dubbed “smartphones” but sometimes the way folks are addicted to them causes dumb problems. I’ve read three articles that suggest that cellphones are creating isolation, poorer communication and less robust relationships. Stress rises when there is a million-dollar crop to get in the ground, excess moisture, and too many jobs for the

Rural Landscape in south western Canada and snow capped mountains

Wiring the farm for the Information Age

The new classification of broadband Internet as a basic telecommunications service 
could significantly narrow the rural-urban digital divide

Information is power, and without data, it is impossible to operate a business — any business. At the tail end of 2016, Canadian agriculture received the news it had long been waiting for: the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) declared that broadband Internet access in Canada is now considered a basic telecommunications service for


Unmanned Aerial Vehicles offer great promise, but aren’t going to replace old-fashioned scouting just yet.

Boots on the ground must support scouting technology

The existing technology can detect variation in a field, but not why that variation exists

There’s no shortage of technology available to help researchers, agronomists, and farmers scout their fields. From satellite imagery and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) to smartphone apps, there are plenty of tools out there. Just don’t expect them to replace boots on the ground any time soon. The limitation of current remote-sensing technology, such

Shirley Snider, treasurer with the Carman Dufferin Municipal Heritage Advisory Committee holds their new brochure bearing the QR code to public cemeteries. Committee member Ina Bramadat and Nedra Burnett, the group's chairperson, say they hope their new guide sparks interest in local history and the many varied symbols found on headstones.

Heritage group creates online cemetery guide

A new online guide to local cemeteries will help bring the stories these sites tell to life, say its creators

People once knew how to “read” those chrysanthemums, empty chairs, logs and other symbols on headstones when they visited cemeteries. It’s a visual language mostly forgotten now. But modern eyes instantly recognize a different symbol — a ‘QR code,’ those tiny blocks of black and white squares are for scanning with smartphones to learn something.

Wildfires in the RMs of Piney and Stuartburn in the spring of 2012 starkly illustrated the need for better rural telecommunications.

CRTC chief deems Internet a necessity

Modern telecommunications are still rare as hen’s teeth in rural areas, but hope is on the horizon

A mid-hearing speech, made by the chairman of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, is welcome news to rural advocates of digital equality. In recent televised remarks, Jean-Pierre Blais said the necessity of broadband Internet access was a “self-evident truth,” shifting the focus of the current review of basic telecommunications services from proving the need


Peter Gredig says a smartphone can be one of the most productive tools on the farm.

Getting into the mobile mindset

If you’re not sure what your smartphone can do, a 14-year-old can help

Tech expert Peter Gredig recommends re-examining the power of your mobile device, as it may be one of the most valuable tools you own. “For the money, that $500 phone that you carry in your pocket probably has the highest rate of return of anything you have on the farm,” said Gredig, a partner in

Peter Gredig spoke to an audience on the 
use of mobile technology in ag at the 
Manitoba Ag Days held in Brandon, Man., 
last month.

Put mobile technology to use on your farm

Spend more time in the field and less time at a desk with the use of 
mobile technology, Cloud computing and agriculture-geared apps

The next time your combine is making an unfamiliar tickety tickety noise, don’t call your machinery repairman – send them a video message so they can see and hear the problem, farmers attending Ag Days in Brandon were told last month. Today’s mobile technology is a perfect fit for farmers. The ability to access business

Books in a library

Local libraries in the online age

Will tablets and e-books mean 
the end of one of the few public 
spaces in small communities?

Pinawa residents put a lot of effort into stocking a public library in the 1960s, but would they repeat the job today? Maybe, but probably not with the same zeal, says Michael Luke, chair of the eastern Manitoba town’s library board. Now faced with circulation declines, including a recent double-digit drop in books checked out,


Man talking with microphone.

Real-time communication invaluable on-farm resource

The time when managing a farm business meant staying in the office is long gone, with tractor cabs replacing office chairs and desks

Those fancy phones that keep your kids walking into trees and signposts? They could be helping you diagnose your ailing combine, or identify what critter is eating your crop. “It’s really about what works for you,” said Peter Gredig, of Kettle Creek Communications and AgNition Inc. “It’s about communicating as best as you can.” And

photo: thinkstock

Alberta researchers use eggshells to build better battery

Your morning omelette may hold the solution to your quick-dying smartphone battery. University of Alberta researchers David Mitlin and post-doctoral fellow Zhi Li have developed a fast-charging supercapacitor using eggshell membranes — a plentiful egg industry byproduct. “We sell the liquid egg whites and the yoke to food processors, and we have no use for