All Blog Posts (764)

Its the time of year I start to empty my grain bins.  The farm is situated in a flood plain and if the winter results in an ice jam at the mouth of the Thames river, several feet of water could easily lay over the land if any of the dikes let go.  This hasn't happened since 1976, but he who is not prepared will eventually suffer.  So generally I plan to get the bins empty or within a truck load of empty so it won't take too long to save the grain.  With the winter being mild, there is no ice…

01/25/2012    CanWEA disappointed with OFA statement on wind, will continue to work to ensure farmers enjoy productive relationship with wind energy…

By Mark Wales, President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) is calling on the provincial government to suspend the invasion of rural Ontario with industrial wind turbines. 

Earlier this week OFA took a hard look at our own concerns with wind turbines. We have always been concerned with the price paid for wind power and the fact that it is not dispatchable – it is not stored for use during peak demand periods, making…

By John Clement

January 20, 2012

 

I grew up on a tobacco farm. My brother grew tobacco, as did my father and grandfather. I have spent literally months of my life replanting, weeding, irrigating, harvesting and moving flue-cured leaf. Accordingly, I have viewed the rise and fall of the Ontario tobacco industry with keen interest and have tried to glean lessons from it that can be used when studying other agricultural…

Its a common misconception that a grain farmer gets the winter off.  Granted the daily chores are not so urgent as planting or harvest, but they need to get done eventually.  Unlike farms with livestock, who probably never get a day off, this is a slower time of year.  

The late fall resulted in a lot of delays in equipment maintenance.  Its now the time to make those repairs and modifications to equipment, without the pressure of having to get it done now.  My 5 furrow plow is ready…

I must thank @DylanBisch for asking a me question that inspired this post.  

When my wife and I visit friends in urban areas they are ofter marvelled by just how much grain a farm produces and a very common question arrises, Who do you sell it to?  A very simple questions but there is no simple answer.  Without going into the complexities of how to market grains, i hope to shed a little light on how its sold.

I will simplify this process by grouping two sale classifications,…

On my list of what to do in 2012, one of those items was to write a blog.  Last year i was introduced to the world of Twitter, but you can't always communicate ideas in 140 characters or less.

2011 marked the first year that i operated the entire family farm.  I am the 4th generation to use this land and much of the equipment i have was purchased by the 2nd, and even some that was used by my great grandfather.  I farm 265 workable acres and maintain a full time management position at…

By Lorne Small…

OMAFRA Field Crop Plant Pathologist Albert Tenuta is working on an early warning system for producers, which will be able to identify diseases before they are visible in the field.



This is done using sentinel plots across North America which use spore samples to assess crop disease risk for producers.



Tenuta hopes to expand the network in future so more producers can benefit from this disease monitoring…

By Nathan Stevens

December 30, 2011

 

University of Guelph Prof Lilly Tamburic-Ilincic is developing a Fusarium Headblight Resistant Winter Wheat at the UofG Ridgetown Campus. Tamburic-Ilincic hopes to help farmers gain an advantage by growing this new variety in Ontario. This will provide farmers with a price premium and reduce the costs of transportation to…

By John Clement…

Prof John Cant and PhD student Scott Cieslar fed organic-selenium-enriched diets to 80 cows at the Elora Dairy Research Station, and took samples of their mammary tissue. Now, they are analyzing the mammary cells to see if the selenium affected their survival and anti-oxidant…

By Lorne Small…