Hursh Comment

At the January 9th annual meeting of Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, a resolution on variety use agreements, sometimes referred to as trailing royalties, received a great deal of debate culminating in a very close vote. While all the crop commissions do commendable work, SPG was the first check-off established in the province and the organization has …

Is the carbon tax adding to food costs? Certainly, but not in all the ways purported. When an argument supports your point of view, sometimes you don’t fully scrutinize it. That’s the case with the carbon tax and grocery bills. Make no mistake, the carbon tax is bad policy. It isn’t significantly reducing Canadian carbon …

For those seeking top agriculture-related speakers each January, Saskatoon used to be the leading prairie location. Gradually, that distinction has been lost to events in the neighboring provinces. For years, Saskatoon hosted Crop Production Week with big and small crop commissions holding annual meetings along with speaker programs. The meetings coincided with the Western Canadian …

Conventional wisdom tells us that farm equipment is a depreciating asset. As soon as you buy it, the value starts declining. These days, however, values are in many cases defying gravity. Lots of people follow farm equipment values more closely than I do, but the point was brought home to me recently as a bid …

“Across Canada, farmers are experiencing declining mental health,” says a report just released by the National Farmers Union. The report claims there’s a farmer mental health crisis in this country and all the things the NFU thinks are wrong in agriculture need to be fixed so that farmers no longer have too much stress. The …

With relations between Canada and India at a new low, it’s an uneasy time for lentil exporters. So far, allegations by Canada have led to the expulsion of diplomats by both countries and the suspension of visa services for Canadians wanting to travel to India. Whether the political tension spills over into the trade arena …

Previously unimaginable, 550 to 600-pound steer calves seem destined to fetch over $2,000 each during the fall calf run. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, this newfound profitability in the beef sector is unlikely to reverse the steady erosion of cattle numbers in Western Canada. Even with heifer calf prices somewhat lower than steers, selling …

You’d think that with such a spindly crop, harvest would be fast and easy. Instead, for me at least, it’s been a season of fix and repair daily, if not hourly. We got a new to us combine late last fall and we kept the better of our two much older combines. What could go …

What can be done to help cattle producers facing another year of drought and serious feed shortages? The Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association has held well attended meetings in Kindersley, Perdue, Cabri and Cadillac to address the issue. While drought also hurts grain producers, crop insurance is a significant economic backstop. With grain prices historically high, crop …

“How are your crops?” asked the retired school teacher, a smart, engaging man. “Really poor for the third year in a row,” I said, noting the area short of moisture was expanding and it wasn’t going to be a great crop for a lot of producers. “So, have farmers now started to believe in climate …

The lambda issue is likely to make liars out of a bunch of normally honest farmers. When a rule changes, you may not like it, but if there’s a logical reason for the rule change most people are likely to abide. On the registration change for the insecticide lambda-cyhalothrin, there’s an amazing lack of logic. …

The recently confirmed merger between Bunge and Viterra is a reminder of how times and attitudes have changed. The merger could be contingent on divestitures required by the competition bureau, but the idea of the two heavyweights joining forces isn’t creating much of a stir. I started as a wet-behind-the-ears agriculture reporter back in 1980 …