But rural Manitoba continues to badly lag urban Manitoba when it comes to accessing the much-touted information superhighway.

Editor’s Take: The digital divide

It was a pleasant, if bitterly cold, winter evening. The Winnipeg Jets were battling the Edmonton Oilers on one laptop screen, while my spouse’s family were catching up on a Zoom call on the other. As we closed the gap COVID has imposed amongst us, I couldn’t help but reflect how nice it would be

“The robot reduces the presence of humans on the pig farms, and generates data that helps improve overall herd management.” – Giobani Molin, Roboagro director

Orders soar for Brazil pig-tending robot

Robots make feeding more efficient, but might also make pigs more relaxed by playing classical music

Sao Paulo – Orders for a Brazilian pig-feeding robot, which plays classical music while dispensing meals, soared this year as farmers strove to cut costs amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The machine uses linear feeders which dispense the exact amount of feed needed for each meal. As it works, it plays classical music, which the company


Consumers aren’t seeing autonomous vehicles driving up to their homes quite yet, but that day is not far in the future.

Comment: Battle of the middle mile

Automating food delivery between distribution hubs and stores a glimpse of the future

Loblaw is partnering with Gatik, an autonomous vehicle provider from the United States, to launch the first autonomous food delivery fleet. This is a solution for the “middle mile,” which will assure links between distribution centres and stores. Consumers will not see autonomous vehicles driving up to their homes yet, but that day will surely

You need to look closely but this still from a Blue River Technology video shows “robotic nozzles” drenching a weed with a herbicide while leaving the adjacent cotton plants untouched.

Farm automation just over the horizon

The earliest models are already here and the future is closer than you think

Glacier FarmMedia – Just picture it: You’ve been watching your crop get rained on all week from your kitchen window, and it’s about time to do some crop scouting to see if you need to spray. But your farm is way ahead of you. Soil sensors have been monitoring moisture levels, and they’ve already called


New tech in agriculture can make a farm more efficient and sustainable, but strong connectivity to the internet is essential to make it work.

Opinion: Universal internet helps make food more sustainable

Urban consumers could become great advocates for rural internet

Consumers wanting to reduce the carbon intensity of their food should advocate for better rural internet. Most agricultural towns have broadband, but in the country cell service fades. Telematics produced by farm equipment has to be stored, getting pushed to the cloud at the farmyards while IoT devices use networks, like LoRaWAn. Network-controlled automation is

“COVID-19 has put us on a digital fast track, farmers are going online. They are rapidly innovating, creating ways of selling their products to keep themselves afloat.” – Alison Sunstrum, CNSRV-X.

More technology needed for post-COVID agriculture

A silver lining of the pandemic is that it has jump-started agriculture’s digital evolution, observers say

Experts speaking at the virtual Toronto Global Forum say a meaningful economic recovery to the COVID-19 pandemic should emphasize the need for technology in the agricultural sector. Alison Sunstrum, founder and CEO of CNSRV-X, said she hopes there is a digital response to the pandemic. “COVID-19 has put us on a digital fast track, farmers


The past century has seen agricultural equipment become more high tech, efficient, and safer.

Comment: Right to repair machinery, not modify

Modern farm equipment can be dangerous or easily damaged when improperly modified

For the most part, agriculture in Canada has survived the COVID-19 pandemic better than expected. Weather and commodity prices have played a big part of that. Perhaps the only negative we see is that the coronavirus created major disruptions in the inventory and parts supply chain. Equipment manufacturers and dealers are addressing the issue to

Climate Corp. has launched a new tool within its web-based field management system.

FieldView getting into the zone on crop protection

Climate FieldView has expanded its scope of zone-based variable-rate mapping from seed and fertilizer to crop protection products

Climate Corporation argues that every spray droplet should land where it’s going to do the farmer the most good, and it says new features of its Climate FieldView management system are letting producers do exactly that. The company has launched a new tool within the web-based field management system; one that allows the producer to create customized variable-rate


Video meat inspection moves a step forward

Video meat inspection moves a step forward

Beef 911: Changes to allow video ante-mortem inspection and on-farm slaughter make good sense

All through the year accidents can happen and the need for emergency slaughter can arise. Broken legs during breeding season, fighting or, very rarely during transport, downer cattle, make access to emergency slaughter imperative. In Alberta, the government recently announced changes that will allow a mobile butcher to take video of the animal, which can

Xarvio Field Manager goes mobile

Xarvio Field Manager goes mobile

Field Manager was web based only until recently. Now the company has gone app based

BASF’s digital branch, Xarvio Digital Farming Solutions, is putting more and more of its services in the palm of the hand. Farmers may already be familiar with Xarvio’s Field Manager, previously launched as a web-based service for collecting, analyzing and making data-driven decisions at the field level. Now, however, the company wants to make that