September 2020—My canola colleague and friend Rick Taillieu, manager of grower relations and extension with Alberta Canola, sometimes sends me lyrics from The Tragically Hip songs that fit with whatever is going on that day. Here’s a line for the times from “Three Pistols”, a song from the Hip’s 1991 Road Apples album: “Bring on a...
Read More March 2020—I am in my chair looking at the table in our living room when what did I notice? Square pegs in round holes! We all know that a ‘square peg in a round hole’ is a person who doesn’t fit into a role or social expectation. A misfit. Yet, here is a table with square...
Read More January 2020—I traveled to India with my dad in November. It was like Jack Whitehall’s “Travels with My Father” except with less sarcasm and humiliation. However, while my dad is not curmudgeonly like Jack’s dad, his palate is perhaps somewhat elder-Whitehallian: My dad would have been happy to spend two weeks in India just eating frozen...
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November 2019—Futurist Bob Treadway encourages farmers to pay attention to people and politics and markets and technology so they can “see around the corner” for events or shifts that could dramatically change the business environment. The key, Treadway says, is to see what might be coming and have the business nimble and flexible to adapt. Export...
Read More September 2019—The saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” doesn’t work for weeds. People promoting effective weed management have their own expression that is pretty much the exact opposite. Tammy Jones, weed specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, shared the catchphrase for a Canola Watch article back in June. “If something is working, change it.” Jones credited...
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