The canola plant was developed in the 1970s to capture the beneficial properties of rapeseed oil and meal – but also to remove the anti-nutritional factors that limited the use of rapeseed oil and meal by the food and livestock feeding industry.

On the exceptionally hot days of summer, I often was tasked with giving our not-so-well calves an extra dose of electrolytes over the lunch hour in order to keep them hydrated through the heat. The downfall of our group-housing barn design is that when you go in the pen to treat one calf, more are sure to stop over to see what is happening.

I’ve consumed a bit too much chocolate in my adventures at the Hershey Lodge in Pennsylvania. You are given a large Hershey bar at check-in, a bag full (more than 10 chocolate pieces with room service breakfast) and chocolate butter at the banquet table.

A farm is great place to raise a family with progressive technology, business practices and the opportunity to develop and pass on the farm to future generations. A farm is also a workplace.A workplace with heavy equipment that is bigger and faster, livestock, high voltage that fuels the farm, exposed mechanics, confined spaces such as silos, chemicals and endless other possible hazards.

When was the last time you proactively considered, planned and communicated with your employees and partners about your expectations for today and the future? Have you sat down with your employees recently and discussed what is going well and listened to their ideas?

The revolution towards robotic milking of cows in Canada continues unabated. What might once have appeared a luxurious fad to many has become mainstream, with 7 percent of all farms nationwide now using robots to milk cows.