Winter cereals see all four seasons in Ontario, which means a wide variety of environmental conditions can affect their growth and yield. What can growers expect after a cooler fall for planting in parts of the province and an unusually warm winter? Do typical considerations like nitrogen and sulphur application timings and pest management strategies changed in a year like this one? In this episode of Inputs, Joanna Follings, cereals specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), gives an overview of fall 2023 planting conditions for winter cereals, inclu ..read more

After a winter with below-average snowfall levels, farmers in Alberta and across the Prairies need to plan now for what could be a dry growing season. In this episode of Inputs, we are joined by agronomist extension specialist Ruoxi Xia, who works with Alberta Grains. Xia shares her insights and some tips on how growers can prepare for potential drought conditions, including what measures should be taken right now, which crops are more susceptible to dry conditions, what resources are available to farmers and much more. Never miss an episode of Inputs by subscribing to the podcast on App ..read more

The start of the 2024 growing season is coming fast – do you have a plan for spring nutrient management? In this episode of Inputs, Chris Brown, field crop sustainability specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), discusses considerations for successful spring manure application, as well as best management practices and an alternate nutrient source coming from urban areas. Never miss an episode of Inputs by subscribing to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Show notes AgriSuite ..read more

Peter Sikkema has been researching the importance of weed management on soybean crops for more than three decades now. A professor of weed management for field crops at the University of Guelph, much of Sikkema’s work has been conducted in Ontario, but there are key takeaways from his research for soybean growers in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. During this episode of Inputs, Sikkema, along with FMC Canada’s technical sales manager for the Eastern Prairies region, Rachel Evans, talk about several issues facing soybean growers when it comes implementing a quality weed management strategy. Sikkema ..read more

Agriculture can be a contentious topic when speaking with the general public, as there is a lot of misinformation or confusion about the industry out there. But educating the public, whether on social media, at the coffee shop, or on a broader scale can be difficult when the industry is so diverse and resources aren’t always easily accessible. Enter The Real Dirt on Farming, a magazine on agriculture in Canada that addresses many of the hot button issues and puts faces to the people who feed the country. Kelly Daynard, executive director of Farm and Food Care Ontario (the organization that put ..read more

Drones are a hot topic in the agriculture world right now, with spraying, mapping and seeding all at the top of a long list of tasks that would be incredibly beneficial to farmers. As the technology continues to improve, people like Bob Hoffos, a GPS/GIS instructor for the land and water resources program at Werklund School of Agriculture and Technology at Olds College of Agriculture and Technology, is leading the way when it comes to what drones can do for growers and agronomists. In this episode of Inputs, Hoffos talks about how drones can make a farmer’s life easier, what type of sensors an ..read more

With all of the technology implemented in modern agriculture, automation and robotics is likely the next logical leap – but it can feel like an exceptionally large one for many. Between the economic, technological, and reliability considerations, there’s the added difficulty of knowing which machine might work best for your operation, and whether it can do what it’s supposed to. In Ontario, the AgRobotics Working Group has been hard at work for a few years to make things clearer and more approachable. In this episode of Inputs, Eastern editor Alex Barnard chats with Chuck Baresich, general man ..read more

Karen Della Campbell came to agriculture from a non-traditional path. During the course of her travels and studies to become a midwife, she and her then-boyfriend, now-husband lived in Eugene, Ore., and were surrounded by farms and market gardens – which she had never seen in southern Ontario in the 1990s. When they returned to Ontario, they opened their own market garden, selling through the Guelph Farmers Market, which led them to Hillsburgh, Ont.’s Everdale Farm, a former free school, once the land they were farming traded hands. Since then, Campbell and her team have developed Everdale int ..read more

Widely recognized as a leader and innovator in regenerative soil management, Judith has led and co-led a number of national projects, including the Living Laboratories Atlantic Canada project. She’s an active advocate for the Living Lab concept, and beyond her research, has mentored two summer students every summer for the past decade, and also serves as an adjunct professor at Dalhousie and Laval Universities. In this conversation, Nyiraneza discusses how her young life in Rwanda, which brought her an inherent appreciation for agriculture combined with an aptitude for science, led her toward ..read more

Ontario-based Darby McGrath has been involved in agriculture since she was a teenager: first through working on tree fruit farms in the Niagara region, through her several roles with Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, as an adjunct professor with the University of Waterloo and Brock University, and as a board member of Local Enhancement & Appreciation of Forests non-profit organization. Nominated by Vineland plant breeding research scientist Rachael LeBlanc, McGrath stood out for her research accomplishments in horticulture and her leadership capabilities. While McGrath is fairly new ..read more