Features Business & Policy Business Management
INTRODUCTION: Pulses and business

With biofuel-driven higher crop values now beaten down by a Canadian dollar of greater value, we find ourselves still in a situation where grains and oilseeds producers need to stretch their thinking. Conventional thinking and tradition are to be respected, no question. However, neither should be so inflexible as to discourage new thinking or ‘a different approach' to an old standard.

It is somehow fitting that the agri-food industry is taking a collective look at other practices, other ways of doing much the same thing. The energy potential from annually renewable sources has many growers thinking of cropping alternatives. Others are looking at alternate sources of energy for their operations, from wind and solar to biogas. The options seem to multiply from one week to the next.

This is the ‘pulse focus' issue of Top Crop Manager and you will find plenty of advice and perspectives for these crops inside. Especially, we've touched on the subject of disease management, from research and practical field level perspectives to markets for usual and newer pulse types, as well as including some advice about nutrients and moisture.

In the vein of lateral thinking, we continue our new series on business management with good counsel from a professor at one of Canada's leading business schools. Like our crop management content, we believe these stories will help trigger progressive thinking. They are not revolutionary ideas by any means, nor are they the ultimate word on respective issues. Instead, they offer a point of discussion, perhaps even a livelier-than-normal debate. In the end, that is where the greatest learning can take place, by reading, discussing and sharing… and by listening.

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Visit the new Top Crop Manager web site and enter our on-line contest for a chance to win significant prizes. (See advertisements pages 30 and 31.)

Peter Darbishire,
publisher and editor