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One day, I tweeted a picture of my brown mustard crop noting that harvest wasn’t far away. Soon after, I received a request from a French television journalist wanting to travel from Paris to my farm. It seems that mustard, specifically Dijon, made from brown mustard is sold out in French supermarkets, creating something akin …

The July meeting of agriculture ministers from across the country resulted in some substantive initiatives that will directly impact farmers. However, as is often the case, the devil is in the details and those are yet to be worked out. At the meeting, held in Saskatoon, it was determined that the next five-year federal, provincial …

Let’s apply a little common sense to macro economic policy. The latest hike to the Bank of Canada rate is a full percentage point with the express purpose of decreasing demand to battle inflation. It’s the largest increase in decades and more increases are expected. While some boost to interest rates is reasonable given how …

The Trudeau Liberals continue to find new ways to alienate rural westerners in general and farmers and ranchers in particular. Farm organizations need to work with governments no matter their political stripe so they tend to be diplomatic in their statements. Not so for the regular farm crowd, a surprising number of whom wear hats, …

As farmers, we are often poorly prepared for one particular risk – lack of labour. This applies to all the folks who do the work, particularly family members. Various methods exist to deal with the price risk on the commodities we sell. Input cost risk is often mitigated on products like fertilizer by buying early. …

The prosperity gap between grain farmers and cow-calf producers has widened considerably over the past year. Gradually, more cattle producers are selling off their cows. Land at all suitable for annual crop production is being taken out of hay and pasture. The price for everything continues to increase – machinery, fertilizer, diesel, fencing supplies and …