Latest forecast indicates migratory grasshoppers likely to emerge in a large cluster this spring rather than more gradually
MEDICINE HAT — The number of crop-damaging grasshoppers has been rising in southern and eastern Alberta since 2021 and conditions favour the trend to continue, according to the latest forecast. The warm, dry fall and early winter may have created a situation in which most southern Alberta grasshoppers have entered diapause, a type of hibernation […] Read more
Crop Management

Poor profit outlook seen for oilseed sunflowers
Manitoba Agriculture has pegged the crop’s target price at 25 cents per pound, much lower than the previous two years
No one likes to finish last but Manitoba Agriculture has ranked oilseed sunflowers as the worst crop to grow in 2024. The province’s cost of production guide for crops says with yields of 2,000 pounds per acre, the profit from oilseed sunflowers will be negative $160.72 per acre, giving a return on investment of negative […] Read more
Cover crop efficiency may drop

Breeding malting barley varieties a tricky business
Giant North American brewers and maltsters want one thing, while micro-brewers and micro-maltsters often want something else
WINNIPEG — Farmers can be frustrated by how few new varieties of malting barley are available for them to use in the real world. Brewers and maltsters can be cautious about changing anything that goes into their production systems. New varieties spell risk and danger to them. These two sides define an industry that requires […] Read more
‘Combuggy’ used as mobile storage
An 8820 combine modified into a grain cart has the benefit of hydrostatic transmission and rear-wheel assist
Some pretty interesting machines have been built in farm workshops over the years. The odd one is marketed commercially, but most simply meet a need on the farm. For Mike Belan and his family’s farming operation near Sarnia, Ont., the workshop creation, dubbed the Combuggy, has been helping grain handling operations run smoothly since 2000. […] Read more
Big iron rakes in big dollars post pandemic
Equipment sales boost largely driven by late deliveries and high commodity prices before they retreated last year
A big boost in four-wheel-drive tractor sales signals that the farm equipment industry is returning to normal, say salespeople and other industry experts. New 4WD unit sales in Canada grew 84.8 per cent year over year in November and 41.5 percent year to date, according to the Association of Equipment Managers. In October, it reported Canadian sales of tractors […] Read more
Combyne uses FieldView data to help market grain
Grain deliveries to be connected back to the fields they originated from and management choices made on those fields
Red Deer — Bayer is making it easier for farmers to track data from seeding to harvest, improving their ability to make better agronomic and marketing decisions. The company recently announced producers can now connect their agronomic data in Climate FieldView with their marketing data in Combyne, which was acquired by the company early in […] Read more
Where did all the service technicians go?

Sask. canola, flax groups vote to merge
SaskCanola and SaskFlax have been sharing offices, admin for about a year
