With certain pockets of Western Canada being dealt losing hands at harvest year after year, grain drying is moving from a “nice to have” to a “need to have.”

“… because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; this is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns; the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”—Donald Rumsfeld, former United States secretary of defence.

Darcy Goossen has been farming full-time for more than two decades, but he’s been an inventor his whole life. The Ferintosh farmer can’t even count the number of “handy dandy farm tools” he’s made, but now there is one that certainly stands alone in his mind. Goossen’s Tiregrabber took home the prestigious honour of Best Invention at Canada’s Farm Progress Show (FPS) in Regina, SK, this past year. He edged out Robert Pytlyk, creator of a predator-proof chicken run.

According to five agriculture professionals, pursuing a career in seed may be a rewarding path for recent high school graduates as well as those further along in their studies or now employed in other sectors.

According to farm financial experts, the escalation of land value is shifting the farm-financial paradigm and may change the firmly rooted impulse to build farm operations primarily upon owned acres.

While discussions about value creation in the form of alternative variety research funding models have been ongoing for a decade in Canada, wheat and barley acres continue to decline. For many in the industry, this trend gives the issue increasing urgency. Though there may be widespread agreement that a problem exists, opinions are mixed as to the best solution.

For 40 years or more, Alberta has sought to unleash its agri-food sector. We have amazing people, great companies, decent infrastructure, significant markets and an extraordinarily enviable land base.

If you’re driving north from Calgary on Highway 2, as you approach the Highway 42 intersection just north of Innisfail, you’ll spot a big, red shed out to the west. This blushing building is well-known among Alberta craft brewers as the namesake of the highly regarded Red Shed Malting.

“The need and desire for farmers to brand their farm has definitely picked up quite a bit over the last several years,” said Christensen. “When I started, this was really niche, but now, yes, there’s more and more interest.” 

Markets are dynamic. In theory, prices are determined where supply and demand intersect—where the value that someone is willing to sell a commodity and the price that someone is willing to pay for it match.