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Input costs climb

Canadian grain producers will be spend more than ever to plant their crops this spring, says Canada’s largest farm lender.

According to its 2023 Farm Input Market Outlook, Farm Credit Canada projects that Canadian farmers will spend a record $23.1 billion on fertilizer, fuel, chemical and seed this year, making the 2023 grain and oilseeds crop “the most expensive ever planted in Canada.”

According to FCC estimates, the Canadian market for fertilizer, fuel, seed and chemical reached a record $21.8 billion in 2022, an increase of 26.1 percent over 2021.

Higher spending on crop inputs in 2022 was driven largely by price increases in fuel and farm fertilizer stemming from global supply chain problems and the war in Ukraine.

Spending on the four major inputs is projected to rise another 5.9 percent in 2023 to a record $23.1 billion, FCC added.

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Trending Video

No-Till vs Tillage: Why Neighboring Fields Are World Apart

Video: No-Till vs Tillage: Why Neighboring Fields Are World Apart

“No-till means no yield.”

“No-till soils get too hard.”

But here’s the real story — straight from two fields, same soil, same region, totally different outcomes.

Ray Archuleta of Kiss the Ground and Common Ground Film lays it out simply:

Tillage is intrusive.

No-till can compact — but only when it’s missing living roots.

Cover crops are the difference-maker.

In one field:

No-till + covers ? dark soil, aggregates, biology, higher organic matter, fewer weeds.

In the other:

Heavy tillage + no covers ? starving soil, low diversity, more weeds, fragile structure.

The truth about compaction?

Living plants fix it.

Living roots leak carbon, build aggregates, feed microbes, and rebuild structure — something steel never can.

Ready to go deeper into the research behind no-till yields, rotations, and profitability?