A Manitoba producer finds a delicate balance to help him boost production while maintaining organic certification
Ile de Chenes, Man. — Three organic farmers swap fields back and forth, keeping land certified five years before returning to alfalfa. Their rotation is a delicate balance, but worth the complexity. For Ile de Chenes farmer John Gehrer, the payoff this fall has been significant for his low-input organic system, considering his management plan […] Read more
Between the rows without GPS
John Gehrer’s organic weed management strategy uses technology farmers have employed since the first wheat was domesticated. He controls weeds by cultivating between the rows without harming the crop. To enable between-row cultivation, all crops are planted on 22-inch row spacing with an old John Deere corn planter. He has a variety of discs for […] Read more
Advocacy group promotes fibre
Saskatchewan produces plenty of different fibres, including fibre from sheep, alpaca, flax and hemp. Yet the market for locally grown natural fibres has remained small. Now, the Prairie Fibreshed Network wants to change that by connecting producers and consumers and spreading the news about locally made fibres, said Sonja Welford, Prairie Fibreshed’s treasurer and a […] Read more
Pooled resources benefit specialty crop research
The Diverse Field Crops Cluster works with camelina, carinata, canaryseed, flax, hemp, mustard, quinoa and sunflowers
After five years of research through a time that included a drought and a pandemic, the Diverse Field Crops Cluster has issued a report on its achievements. Carol Ann Patterson, DFCC project manager, said researchers showed their resourcefulness in keeping projects going despite health restrictions. “People were shut down for a year sometimes or with […] Read more
Uncertainty throws cold water on organic market
Producers who came in when prices were high are now leaving the business; some say sector has lost one million acres
There is plenty of uncertainty in the organic market, and processors are hesitant to do much forward contracting of crops.
U.S. hemp industry hopes for better times ahead
More serious players are looking at the food and fibre markets now that the CBD oil craze seems to have run its course
From about 2017 to 2020, thousands of new players entered the hemp business in America, hoping to capitalize on claims that growing, processing and selling hemp CBD would become a massive industry.
U.S. hemp acre crash blamed on CBD bubble
American farmers harvested approximately 20,000 acres of hemp in 2022. That’s not a big number and it’s a massive decline from 2019, when there were 511,000 acres of hemp licenses in America, according to data from Vote Hemp, a lobby group. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will release official hemp statistics in February, but it’s […] Read more
Hemp poised for breakthrough in four potential markets
As one of the founding partners of Blue Sky Hemp Ventures in Saskatoon, Andrew Potter believes innovation within the hemp realm is key to ensuring its long term sustainability — from field to fork and from seed to sale. “Hemp is the perfect tool to meet these goals. Each acre produces high quality plant-based protein […] Read more
In bad taste
It takes about three seconds to find a report predicting that the global market for plant protein will triple, quadruple or quintuple over the next decade. In 2021, Bloomberg Intelligence said the global market for plant protein was worth US$29.4 billion in 2020 and may reach $162 billion by 2030, which would represent 7.7 percent […] Read more
Hemp advocates feel industry’s time has come
A new generation of processing plants has entered the field with an eye on tapping the potential of the fibre market
It’s been nearly 25 years since Canada legalized commercial hemp production after being prohibited in 1938. Today, 50,000 acres are seeded, primarily in the western provinces. Hemp proponents say Canada is well positioned to be a primary source of raw material and a leader in processing hemp into everything from cooking oil to body panels […] Read more
