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An interactive forage species selection tool for Canada

The Canadian farms producing top-quality beef are as unique as our country’s topography. They do have one thing in common--each uses forages in some way. 

Forage U-Pick--a tool that helps farmers and ranchers from British Columbia to the Maritimes choose forages best suited to their fields, calculate seeding rates and manage forage weeds--is now available online at no cost.  

“Selecting forage species that will thrive under the growing and management conditions of a specific field on your farm improves the crop’s productivity. Since well-managed forage is typically the cheapest source of feed, growing productive forages can widen the profit margins of a beef operation,” shares Amy Higgins of the Maritime Beef Council.  

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Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way



Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

We're a 6th generation family farm in southeast Iowa showing the real ups and downs of pig farming and row crop farming. No script, just the work. Subscribe and follow along.

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