The food, farming and grocery sectors have been shocked by the coronavirus crisis. Packing plants have been temporarily shuttered, creating crises on hog farms and cattle feedlots that can’t move animals they have no space for. Food products that everybody has taken for granted for decades, such as flour and yeast, have become suddenly scarce, […] Read more
Crop Management — page 335
Will the wild changes in the grocery, food and farming systems survive the pandemic?
What will create lasting changes and what is transitory?
Manitoba potato growers reach breaking point
Some potato growers in Manitoba have reached a breaking point and not just because of COVID-19. Manitoba’s potato industry has been suffering for more than 18 months. There was a difficult harvest in 2018, a much worse harvest in 2019, potatoes rotting in storage this winter and production cuts this spring. The personal stress has […] Read more
Canola demand stable
Conventional wisdom would suggest the one agricultural commodity that could be most impacted by COVID-19 is high oleic canola oil. The product made its name in the food sector as a replacement for partially hydrogenated soybean oil in restaurant fryers. The foodservice industry has been decimated by COVID-19. Statistics Canada reports that two-thirds of Canada’s […] Read more
Status of grain commission surplus in limbo
Decision on what to do with the $90 million surplus was delayed first by legislative review and now by COVID-19
A decision on what to do with the remainder of a $130 million operating surplus at the Canadian Grain Commission has been delayed again, this time by the COVID-19 pandemic. Sources in the Canadian grain industry told The Western Producer last week that the fate of the CGC operating surplus will not be fully determined […] Read more
Spring-harvested canola program suspended
Grain commission temporarily suspends a research project examining crop quality due to COVID-19 safety concerns
Concerns over employee safety during the COVID-19 pandemic have prompted the Canadian Grain Commission to temporarily suspend a research project examining the quality of spring-harvested canola. The CGC’s spring-harvested oilseed program has been “suspended because of our decision to only have critical services provided during the pandemic,” CGC spokesperson Remi Gosselin confirmed earlier this month. […] Read more
Easier transportation worsens weed problem
MEDICINE HAT, Alta. — COVID-19, the virus that caused a global pandemic, is spread by one of the same things that allow invasive weeds to spread: ease of transportation in modern society. “We have this amazing, fantastic global transportation system that didn’t exist for almost all of history,” said invasive species expert Kelly Cooley. “We’ve […] Read more
Total boom section cleanout in five minutes
A new spray boom recirculation valve promises to reduce sprayer clean-out time to five minutes from one hour, and eliminate dumping rinsate and active product on the ground. The Sectional Recirculation Valve was developed by the Drift Reduction Technology (DRT) Corp. in Wisconsin. The company focuses exclusively on improving the safety and accuracy of applying […] Read more
Army tandem drive goes farming
Farmers with exceptionally heavy loads on their off-road/on-road trucks might consider Link’s new 85K Air Link Tandem Drive Chassis Suspension, which the company claims is North America’s highest-capacity air-spring suspension system. The 85K was first developed for the U.S. military and was released to the commercial and agricultural sectors at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2020 in Las Vegas […] Read more
Don’t stop, keep baling – a new way to round
Round bales offer a lot of functionality to the farm, especially if poly wrapping is part of the plan for forages. But not having to stop and drop a bale would make round baling more efficient. Kubota is offering its new European Kverneland continuous round baler, the world’s first fixed-chamber continuous baling platform, in Canada […] Read more
Getting the exact rate of liquid fertilizer
ExactRate is John Deere’s new factory-installed liquid fertilizer application system for farmers who want to apply liquid fertilizer during planting and who want precise nutrient placement from their planters. This factory-installed option monitors and controls the application of liquid fertilizer during planting, said Deere’s Brady Alley. He explained that the system shuts off flow in […] Read more
