Insights and Stories on Crops

Mar. 27, 2015 at 11:43 am CDT

One of the world’s pre-eminent wheat breeders has retired, sort of. Ron DePauw, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s senior principal wheat breeder at the Semi Arid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre (SPARC) in Swift Current, retired from the department March 20. Last year DePauw was dubbed the “billion-dollar man” in recognition of […]

By Allan Dawson

Mar. 13, 2015 at 10:37 am CDT

Go with your strengths. Then find resource people to help you fill in the gaps. That’s one of the guiding management principles of mother-daughter duo Sharon Hart and Valerie Hobbs who own and manage Blythe Brae Farms near Woodstock, Ont. Hart and Hobbs share responsibility for operations, finance, human resources […]

By Helen Lammers-Helps

Feb. 13, 2015 at 12:09 pm CST

Drones may seem like a fun toy — but on the farm, these fancy fliers mean business. “At the end of the day, you want better information to make better decisions, and that’s what they give you,” said Steve Myshak, owner of Ventus Geospatial in Lethbridge. “That’s the bottom line […]

By Alberta Farmer Staff, Jennifer Blair

Feb. 6, 2015 at 11:21 am CST

Falling oil prices are bad news for energy producers, but that should be good news for farmers and other big users of fuel and energy-intensive products. “We’re paying 30 or 40 cents a litre less for gas today than we were three or four months ago,” said Michael Burt, director […]

By Jennifer Blair

Jan. 30, 2015 at 11:49 am CST

It’s crop-planning season and that means it’s a good time for making plans to create a wild pollinator habitat near your crops. Having a strong pollinator population can offer a benefit to crops, said Mark Wonneck, an ecologist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Calgary. Bees are an important part […]

By Alexis Kienlen