Whether it’s called NAFTA, as the president of the United States did this week, or USMCA, the North American trade deal needs to move fast if it is going to avoid going slow. “No one can, with a straight face, tell us that Canadian steel and aluminum pose a threat to American national security,” said […] Read more
Stories by Michael Raine
Canada toes the official line on China
China’s pain has been inflicted mainly upon the plain, or the Plains to be specific. The official story behind the ban of Canadian canola, and one cannot blame Canadian officials for sticking to their talking points, is that China claims to have found some potentially dangerous elements in Canadian canola exports and they are working […] Read more
North American free trade deal tries not to be caught up in U.S. politics
Whether it’s called NAFTA, as the president of the United States did this week, or USMCA, the North American trade deal needs to move fast if it is going to avoid going slow. “No one can, with a straight face, tell us that Canadian steel and aluminum pose a threat to American national security,” said […] Read more
Canada: constitutional confusion
Where you live in the country and where your personal politics reside has a lot to do with how supportive one might be of our current federal government. But, it would be very difficult to take issue with the success of the economy or the levels of support, both fiscally and spiritually, the Liberals have […] Read more
WASDE fails to move markets off lower path
The USDA’s supply and demand report failed to offer any insights into a market illuminated only by a Chinese lantern
The world’s grains and oilseeds markets seem solidly stuck in sideways, with the only light forward coming from the fragile glow of a Chinese lantern. World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates by the United States Department of Agriculture cast little more illumination on where prices might be headed, other than more of the same. The […] Read moreRotations long been focus for agriculture
In the 1830s, The Farmers’ Cabinet, and American Herd-book arrived in the mailboxes of about 10,000 farmers in United States. It covered nearly all aspects of production agriculture, from growing crops and livestock to processing, financing and selling them. Twice each month, farmers received 16 book-pages for the modern equivalent price of about US$48 annually. […] Read more
VIDEO: Farming by the numbers in the Alta. foothills
A farm family finds having all the information available using precision agriculture lets them make sound choices
AIRDRIE, Alta. — When farmers began using precision agriculture to operate their farms, “they started at the wrong end of the horse.” So says Larry Woolliams, who along with his father, began using data on their farm nearly three decades ago. It has formed the way that the Woolliams farm. The Airdrie, Alta., grain farmer’s […] Read moreAll is not lost when it comes to world trade
For more than two decades, the world seemed to be headed toward less protectionism as free-trade deals proliferated among regions and countries of shared interests. Any time we heard of a commodity-exporting competitor signing on to one that we didn’t have, a bit of green jealousy would rise in our throats. Canada had finally kicked […] Read more
A little brother uses the tools of the big drill from John Deere
John Deere’s new Pro-Series disc openers come on a smaller platform than typically considered on the Prairies, but farmers seeking wide and narrow row-spacing options may like the options they offer. The precision seeding of an independent row air seeder offers growers flexibility with small grains and enough seed placement control. The new N500C marries […] Read more
Poultry, dairy not built on competition
Government needs to consider a sustainable future for supply managed agriculture and whether recent trade agreements will push it into a critical imbalance. There are significant challenges for the maintenance and growth of poultry and dairy because of the new CPTPP and USMCA agreements and for dairy the recent CETA. The Canadian industries, outside of […] Read more
