D’Arce McMillan, The Western Producer markets editor, monitors trends in the North American and global agricultural markets. Each week he hosts three markets videos, oilseeds, cereals, and livestock. The videos are designed to help viewers understand the forces responsible for changes in the trade. If agricultural markets are important to you, we have you covered. […] Read more
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VIDEO: Farm builds business from seed
Shane Woods pockets every vegetable seed he finds as he walks through his three-acre garden. Mid-August is too soon to harvest seeds from most of the vegetables, but the work is so labour intensive that he takes every opportunity to reduce his workload. Shane and Tami Woods own and operate the Wildrose Heritage Seed Co., […] Read more
VIDEO: Lamb producers eye retail market
Canadian Lamb Producers Cooperative will welcome outside investors as it raises money for the project
STEINBACH, Man. — There is a type of processed meat missing from grocery store shelves, and a farmers’ co-operative plans to fill that space with a product missing a letter. LAM: “Lamb without the ‘B,’ ” a product made with 100 percent Canadian lamb products, is expected to come out in limited quantities in November. […] Read more
VIDEO: Farmer thinks outside the line with fencing machine design
Inventor says anchors keep posts in place, allowing the fence line to follow riverbanks and hills and around bluffs of trees
SUNDRE, Alta. — Lloyd Quantz has designed a farmers’ fencing dream machine. His fencer shakes the posts into the ground in three seconds, drills holes into the post, threads the wire automatically and moves onto the next one. The design for Quantz’s automatic fencer was 30 years in his head. Each time he built a […] Read more
VIDEO: The new professionals: farmers learn new roles
Being successful means having marketing and agronomy expertise and business and financial management skills
Part 1: This series looks at how farmers, agriculture consultants and service providers are professionalizing agriculture by integrating the many skills required by today’s complex and challenging industry. You can follow the entire series here. WAWANESA, Man. — Simon Ellis hasn’t dealt with many of the down times in western Canadian farming, at least not […] Read moreVIDEO: Foodgrains bank wants candidates grilled on foreign aid
The international aid budget has been declining despite the government’s commitment to improving maternal and child health overseas
Candidates and party leaders often focus on voters’ selfish interests, but the Canadian Foodgrains Bank hopes its supporters can also make them think about international aid. “We’re reminding (the parties) that international aid really does matter, it does make a difference,” said James Kornelsen, the food-grains bank’s public engagement co-ordinator. “Because the (international aid) budget […] Read more
Machine empties grain bag, then cleans up
After the grain is augered from the bag it rolls the plastic onto a spool and a conveyer loads it onto a pick-up truck
The best way to deal with a mess is to avoid making it in the first place. The Neeralta grain extractor not only augers grain out of grain bags and into trucks, it also winds up the plastic into tight rolls and drops them into the back of a pick-up truck. For people who have […] Read more
VIDEO: Canada’s agricultural markets update – August 12, 2015
D’Arce McMillan, The Western Producer markets editor, monitors trends in the North American and global agricultural markets. Each week he hosts three markets videos, oilseeds, cereals, and livestock. The videos are designed to help viewers understand the forces responsible for changes in the trade. If agricultural markets are important to you, we have you covered. […] Read more
VIDEO: Manitoba farmer uses robot tractor for harvest
Coming when it’s called, an operator-less tractor and grain cart transit a Manitoba field, pull in beside the rolling combine, and farmer Matt Reimer unloads his grain on-the-go. Reimer touches the screen on a laptop application he created; the tractor then pulls to the left and stops, waiting to be called again. “This will save […] Read more
VIDEO: Alfalfa weevils can be tough to control
ROSEMARY, Alta. — Alfalfa weevil control required as many as six insecticide applications for some southern Alberta alfalfa seed growers this year. Gerald Wiens was one of them. A sweep net revealed the need to spray for weevils, but a few days later another sweep showed yet another hatch of the damaging insects. “I kept […] Read more
