Until his 2025 retirement from official duties after 13 years, Fawcett area farmer Gordon McCann oversaw shinny games and hockey practices and maintained the ice at the Fawcett Community Hall and Arena. Its schedule now includes men’s and children’s leagues, and its two curling sheets are central to the community’s annual cabaret and bonspiel to be held this year in late January. Nicknamed Iceman McCann by young skaters, he continues to take on occasional volunteer arena activities and will field a team in the bonspiel.

Established in 1948, the Brewing and Malting Barley Research Institute (BMBRI) has endured and largely maintained its initial mandate to improve Canadian malting barley top to bottom. This is achieved as the organization secures research grants, conducts quality evaluation of malting barley and disseminates information on the crop.

The relative value of gold to other commodities, including wheat, is at an all-time high. For example, one ounce of gold was worth almost 72 barrels of oil at the end of November 2025, up from 7.4 barrels in the same month of 2020. Over the same period, an ounce of gold went from being worth about 100 bushels of wheat to 750. What does this inverse relationship indicate?

Noodles have been a treasured food staple in China for nearly 4,000 years, but recent demand for high-quality pasta has grown. According to the World Instant Noodles Association, China was the world’s largest instant noodle consumer at 43.8 billion servings in 2024. Over the last decade, however, a shift has taken place as pasta has been adopted alongside traditional noodles and gained market share. Trade experts agree this shift has the potential to hugely impact CWAD exports.

On the Olds College Smart Farm, data is rolling in from an ongoing research project that utilizes the Raven Augmenta Field Analyzer. This camera vision machine learning technology senses crop conditions using digital imagery to adjust input application during field operations. Unlike current methods that rely on pre-determined maps, the camera uses an algorithm to make instantaneous decisions about the rate of inputs to apply on crops.

Developed and delivered in collaboration with Farm Credit Canada and RBC, the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) at the University of Guelph offers Foundations in Agricultural Management. The free online course is aimed at Canadian farmers, their families and ag industry professionals who wish to improve their business acumen, financial literacy and management skills. The non-credit, video seminar course is comprised of eight modules that take an average of 15 to 20 minutes each to work through. Compatible with busy farm lifestyles, to earn a certificate of completion, participants can finish the course at their own pace.

Science has enriched the world in countless ways: the light bulb, penicillin, crazy glue. Speaking on the latter, research is the glue that holds the grain sector together. Alberta Grains annually approves funding for multiple studies that may benefit farmers.

Canada’s grain sector is built on trade, but without modern infrastructure, the foundation is cracking. The sector exports more than 70 per cent of its output. When infrastructure fails, the financial and reputational damage is immediate. Delays at port or along key corridors impact farmers financially and undermine Canada’s reliability as a global supplier of high-quality grain.

For Canadian grain farmers, the timing couldn’t be better. Organized by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), a late July trade mission to the Indo-Pacific region aimed to bolster ties with Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore—three key buyers of Canadian cereals in the region. Cereals Canada CEO Dean Dias joined AAFC Minister Heath MacDonald and representatives of six additional major agricultural organizations to strengthen relationships in a region that annually imports more than a quarter of Canada’s total agricultural exports.

Olds College of Agriculture and Technology is assessing a machine that mimics lightning to create crop nutrients. The Thunder 365 allows farmers to make their own salt-free liquid fertilizer literally out of thin air. “The cost of fertilizers like urea and anhydrous ammonia has been extremely volatile, with prices peaking at historic highs in recent years,” said Angie Stoute, a research technician at Olds College. “If there’s a way to get that cost down, that’s a great thing.”