Changes in agriculture are highlighted in the 2024 edition of the Old Farmer’s Almanac.
The changes involve American agriculture but Canadian farm trends aren’t much different.
Labour shortages on the farm will be one of the biggest trends in 2024. Strategies to attract, hire, and keep the best employees are important to farmers.
According to hearsay, some large Canadian farms are paying around $100,000 a year to top employees.
The Texas Farm Bureau indicates concerns with land prices so high that farmers and ranchers have difficulty leasing land at costs that keep the farm viable. Sounds familiar in Saskatchewan.
High input costs of seed, fertilizer, fuel and chemicals, high interest rates and livestock/crop diseases are an issue for farmers.
The use of drones in agriculture is expanding rapidly with operations planting cover crops, applying herbicide on wet soils, dropping cover crop seeds into corn and soybean fields before harvest to give cover crops a head start.
Robots are used to laser weeds without disturbing the soil, to apply fertilizer and pick ripe strawberries.
One trend on farms is development of you-pick operations as well as growing flowers and hosting events like weddings.
An ongoing trend is growing crops in controlled indoor environments such as multi-storey buildings.
Some city people donate their yards to students who grow food to donate to the community or use in schools.
If you wonder why strawberries are so expensive, an acre of strawberries in California costs the farm $35,000 for labour.
In regards to the weather, the Almanac predicts a colder than normal winter for the southern Prairies and more snowfall than usual — pretty well the opposite of Environment Canada.
Coldest periods will be mid-November, early and late January and mid-February. Temperatures will be three degrees Celsius below average in November and four degrees below average in January, February and March.
Snow is expected in April.
Spring will be colder than usual with below average precipitation in May and June.
Summer will be hotter than usual by about one degree, with half as much rain as average.
September and October will be warmer than average with less rainfall.
The Southern British Columbia getaways will be colder and with less precipitation this winter and heavier snowfall in the north.
For snowbirds, Florida and the Carolinas will be warmer than average with above average rain and snow.
Arizona and California will be colder with above normal precipitation
The Almanac claims 86 per cent accuracy for last year which compares with 80 per cent claimed by Environment Canada.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
