Archives for April 2011

It has been many years since I first started doing a daily radio commentary. Some of you who read this report on the website or receive the report by email may not realize that this is the text version of a report than runs on various Saskatchewan radio stations. April 29 marks my last radio …

I put about 1,200 kilometers on my truck the past couple days on a road trip from southwest Saskatchewan all the way up to Viking, Alberta and back. Along the way, I passed by Leader, Alsask, Marengo, Kindersley, Rosetown and Swift Current on the Saskatchewan side and Oyen, Hanna and Killam on the Alberta side. …

Statistics Canada spent a lot of money doing its Seeding Intentions Report released yesterday, but the report has limited value. A total of 12,600 farmers were surveyed at the end of March to come up with the numbers. The report seems to assume that we will suddenly have a normal year and all the acres …

Here’s an early season test of weather forecasts. On Monday, the Environment Canada forecast sounded quite favourable. There was 30 to 60 per cent chance of some showers for some of the days later in the week for a number of locations, but it didn’t sound like very much precipitation. By contrast, World Weather Inc. …

This may come as a surprise to those still suffering from flooding, but if the weather holds, a bit of seeding will take place in Saskatchewan this week. The extreme southwest corner of the province is usually the first out of the gate. Many years, seeding is underway there by the middle of April. This …

The Manitoba Canola Growers Association has opened a can of worms by conducting a farmer survey on the voluntary marketing of canola through the Canadian Wheat Board. The arguments for and against the single desk are well known. In this case, just the idea of voluntary canola marketing by the board has caused a wave …

The low European tolerance for glyphosate residue on lentils could make marketing the crop more difficult if glyphosate has been used in a pre-harvest application. Saskatchewan Pulse Growers and Pulse Canada have put together a fact sheet to answer some of the most common questions on the issue. They say that even if a producer …

Many producers have geared up their equipment to take advantage of whatever seeding window is available this spring. In some cases, this has meant bigger tires, extra tires or even tracks for the tractor and drill to reduce the number of times the outfit will be stuck in the mud. Some producers purchased larger seeding …

There have been severe flooding problems in many parts of Saskatchewan and the worst may be yet to come. However, we’ve actually been lucky with the weather over the past couple months. Temperatures throughout March were much colder than normal, slowing the snow melt. That has continued into April with most days cooler than average …

At the recent SARM convention, the provincial government announced $500,000 for a Beaver Control Program. It’s a one-year pilot program. SARM has now announced the program guidelines. The program will pay $15 for the removal of each adult beaver in participating RMs with the RM responsible to at least match the $15. So a minimum …

According to the pollsters, nearly a million Canadians support the Green Party. That’s scary when you read their agriculture platform. According to the Greens, we should all be small, organic peasants selling our produce into local markets. Organic agriculture, they say, will help reverse climate change, provide food security, restore soil health and improve human …

It seems like cellulosic ethanol has been five years away for the last 15 years. Now, we’re starting to see the establishment of more facilities that will produce ethanol from wheat straw, corn stalks, and other sources of biomass. Novozymes in partnership with Mossi and Ghisolfi Group is building the world’s largest cellulosic ethanol plant …