Those pails in bin doors across the prairies hold a lot of power. A single harvest sample can help an individual farmer negotiate price and delivery for his grain, but gather enough of those samples and the impact goes far beyond the farm gate or country elevator.

Technologies and tools that make you safer, more efficient and more productive during harvest time offer big benefits and quick payback. The following suggestions are not about iron and horsepower — they’re your top picks for electronics and software. The brands referred to in the following list of suggestions are provided as examples. Do your own research to find the products that best meet your needs and budget.

Farmers could be forgiven for being a bit perplexed by the recent proliferation of farm organizations in Western Canada.

As we get into the very tail end of harvest, growers will have followed through on the part of their crop marketing plan that moved what grain was necessary to manage any lack of storage space. The focus for remaining inventories is now on extracting the most value possible, while still meeting any other farm-level constraints such as ongoing cash flow needs.

You’d think being the Canadian elevator operations manager for the Canada malting Company — with responsibilities stretching from Alberta to Manitoba — would be enough to keep a man busy. But not for Ryan Dodd.

Farming has changed — and it’s about to change even more. With current forecasts suggesting a global population of more than nine billion by 2050, the opportunities and challenges in agriculture are going to increase in number and complexity. We will need to employ technologies, processes and approaches that may seem more akin to the world of high-tech business than food production.

Working in agriculture can feel like a cross between playing The Game of Life, The Settlers of Catan and The Farming Game (with a little poker thrown in for fun). No matter how well you plan or how good your strategy is, sometimes the cards just don’t go your way.