The California Mastitis Test (CMT) has been around for a long time — so long that many people don’t think that it is very useful anymore. The basis of the test is quite straightforward. The... Read more

Scams and scammers are now part of our lives. Daily they appear on our phones and computers or through the mail. We learn to recognize and ignore them for the sake of personal financial safe... Read more

Successfully getting heifers bred and getting cows bred back is an ongoing challenge on dairy farms no matter where you are nor what season it is. Reproductive success requires so many thing... Read more

I’m glad the election campaign is over. It was frustrating listening to all the campaign rhetoric. Agriculture was neglected and not discussed. Justin Trudeau claims one of his most importan... Read more

Several years ago my neighbour Hughie turned up on the veranda with a basket of sour cherries. My wife thanked him and told him she would turn them into jam. “Don’t bother with jam,” he said... Read more

One of the most interesting things about the eastern Canadian wheat market is that we are consistently a high-priced island in a sea of soft wheat markets around the world. 2019’s relatively... Read more

Canadians aged 35 and younger made up the largest voting bloc in the federal election. That’s alarming for someone like me who has been convinced for some time that the voting age should be... Read more

Note: This editorial was written prior to the Oct. 7 leaders debate. The Oct. 21 federal election is around the corner and we’re looking at a nail-biter. What is most surprising is that, rig... Read more

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) oversees transportation of livestock in Canada. It also works with many stakeholders to revise transport regulations. The most recent revision was... Read more

For some reason, the local Conservatives invited me to host a meeting during the federal campaign to introduce their new candidate. I guess they assumed that because I worked as a speech wri... Read more

For people who have been watching the corn market closely, these past few months have taught us some interesting things about the size and distribution of the 2018 crop supply, and also how... Read more

In the search for a good news story which might lead to a strengthening in soybean prices, a large number of Canadian farmers are following the ongoing trade negotiations between the United... Read more

Good colostrum management is key to the health of newborn calves. Good management includes harvesting and feeding enough good-quality colostrum in a timely manner so that the antibody level... Read more

Bologna was a processed food my mother outlawed and we never had it in the house. School kids I grew up with had thick bologna slices slapped on margarine laced store-bought white bread for... Read more

Before Hitler’s tanks rolled across Europe, many people weren’t so sure he was the bad guy. But the news media should have known from Hitler’s own words in his ridiculous 700-page manifesto... Read more

One of my recent plays opened at the Blyth Festival in southwestern Ontario in July and I went down to sit in the crowd several times during the run. The Team on the Hill is a play about a f... Read more

As business owners, farmers must routinely consider value for money if they wish to remain in business. Will a specific cost produce increased efficiencies, increased production or a savings... Read more

It was 50 years ago this past June that Ontario farmers got to vote on whether or not they wanted a general farm organization (GFO). The referendum required a 60 per cent “yes” vote to have... Read more

One of the most interesting dynamics of the 2019 crop year has been the unusual spring weather conditions which limited planting both in terms of timing and the number of acres actually sown... Read more

The farm I live on stands within eyeshot of two ski hills which have long been the main source of economic activity for this community. I was never a skier myself but I grew up with skiers a... Read more

In June, the University of Guelph hosted an international veterinary conference on small ruminant health and productivity. One of the major topics was how to manage internal parasites in she... Read more

Two years ago, Joseph Hudek boarded a plane in Seattle destined for Bejing. Like so many, he thought marijuana, or cannabis, just made you happy, sleepy and hungry. So he bought several 10-m... Read more

As of now, there are only 3,445 dairy farmers left in Ontario. We all know farmers who have quit, the reasons varying from farm to farm. Usually it’s a combination of things but in the end t... Read more

Getting skunked is part of the rich pageantry of life. Last month I joined a couple of farmers on a remote lake in Algoma to search for speckled trout. We were banished to the place by our w... Read more

Infectious diseases are not at the top of the list of dairy and beef farmers’ concerns. That is especially true with the weather/climate and trade issues that seem unrelenting. Almost 30 yea... Read more

I thought only farmers and outdoorsy people listen to weather forecasts. Not so. I read somewhere that 83 per cent of Canadians start their day checking the weather on television, the radio... Read more

Controlling Johne’s disease is a challenge for farmers and veterinarians. It is also a challenge for researchers. There are a few reasons for that. A big one is that the disease is chronic.... Read more

Earlier this month, Statistics Canada released their estimates of grain stocks stored on Canadian farms as of March 31. What’s of particular interest to us in this province is that their ana... Read more

When I was a kid, I thought only farmers and ship captains smoked a pipe. I was so surprised when my dentist walked into his clinic with a pipe in his mouth. That was in the late 1950s when... Read more

My two cash cropper brothers-in-law recently brought out their iPads to show me the work of a number of farmer-poets, farmer-comics, and farmer storytellers who are broadcasting to the natio... Read more

Tim Hortons restaurants were once an iconic Canadian business. Founded in 1964 in Hamilton, Ontario by pro hockey player Tim Horton (1930-1974) and Jim Charade (1934-2009), it was part of Ca... Read more

My neighbour Orval got a surprise call from the high school last month. Seems his grandson Nathan got into a brawl in the hallway and they needed his guardian to get down there right away. O... Read more

The next phase of proAction, “Biosecurity,” is to start this September. So our son attended the mandatory course with our local vet. To our son’s surprise, we were the only proAction certifi... Read more

As one travels around Ontario, it’s apparent that soggy fields and the fatal combination of flooding and ice have had a detrimental impact on a significant portion of the winter wheat crop.... Read more

Calves are the future of the dairy herd and the future and the profit of the beef cow-calf. Dr. John Mee from Ireland is a specialist in calf care and recently reviewed important aspects of... Read more

In a global commodity marketplace where grains and oilseeds are sold around the world, an interruption in trading patterns has significant consequences for everyone involved. This is certain... Read more

Respiratory disease, pneumonia, is still one of the most common reasons why dairy calves, veal calves and beef calves end up getting sick. Because most of these calves are treated with an an... Read more

If you’re happy and you know it, chances are you’re living in a rural community. That’s according to researchers at McGill University in Montreal and the Vancouver School of Economics, who e... Read more

My kids set up a Facebook account for me 10 years ago in one of their last attempts to get me to join the wired world. It was a flat failure. My Facebook page has a ghost town feel about it;... Read more

One of the most critical pieces of data which drives grain markets at this time of year is seeding intentions. Knowing how many acres of each crop are going to be planted in the spring is im... Read more

I’m okay with the new Canada Food Guide that was launched this past January. Anything to get Canadians to eat better is a must because Canadians have terrible eating habits. I’ve said it bef... Read more

One of the more frustrating things in trying to figure out how to deal with some common diseases is that the research and the advice that is given out is often conflicting. There are lots of... Read more

There’s a line I love from Paul St. Pierre’s Breaking Smith’s quarter horse when Smith’s wife suggests he do some reading to improve his farming skills and make the ranch run more profitably... Read more

There is growing recognition of what farmers, and their families, have known for decades: Farming is stressful! It is a profession where, at times, it seems everything and almost everyone is... Read more

An Ontario grain elevator operator was incensed when he complained about his electricity costs and an Ontario Hydro representative told him to use less electricity. Only a government-regulat... Read more

It’s certainly controversial to say that in a world where the biggest producer of soybeans is in a trade dispute with the world’s biggest consumer of soybeans, that prices are too high. But... Read more

A few years ago, I sat in on a dairy conference where farmers talked about their experiences after adopting new technologies. One farmer had fairly recently assumed responsibility for the fa... Read more

Canada’s new food guide was unveiled mid-January amid much criticism. Leaning heavily on fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, water and protein from non-animal sources, it has many exp... Read more