Reading Time: 4 minutes Let’s say you’re a soybean producer in Manitoba. You’re growing conventional varieties and doing well — selling into a ready market, getting a decent price. Then one day in the coffee shop you overhear a guy talk about the price he’s getting for organic soybeans — pretty much double what you’re getting — and you […] Read more
The power of whole farm co-design
A research project brings farmers together to share results and discuss what works and what doesn’t
Improving flax one allele at a time
Rust hasn’t affected Canadian flax for more than 40 years, but new varieties must still incorporate resistance
Reading Time: 4 minutes On the surface, you’d think that a research project seeking to locate and sequence specific rust-resistance genes, then find ways to quickly identify the presence of these genes in plant breeding material is ultimately about preventing crop loss to rust. But we’re talking about flax here, so think again. Flax is a one million-acre crop […] Read more
The Catch-22 of oat production
Tests in central Alberta yield some useful information on N rates and the effectiveness of plant growth regulators
Reading Time: 4 minutes Linda Hall has a soft spot for the humble oat, mainly because she doesn’t think it’s really all that humble. “Milling oats are a high-value crop,” Hall says. “We’re seeing companies like Richardson buying up oat milling capacity, so the markets are there if we can grow the right kind of oat.” It all depends […] Read more
UAVs and crop scouting. Are they worth it?
Seven organizations supported a two-year study on whether drones can provide practical benefits to farmers
Reading Time: 5 minutes When Chris Neeser began to design a research project on the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in crop scouting, he wondered if anyone would be willing to fund it. “This was different from a typical research project,” says Neeser, a research scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry’s Crop Diversification Centre, South, in Brooks. “There […] Read more
Row upon row of fusarium
At this ‘nursery’ at Carman, Man., researchers simulate exactly the conditions wheat farmers fear — warm, humid and loaded with fusarium spores
Reading Time: 2 minutes It’s incredibly labour intensive,” says Anita Brûlé-Babel of the FHB screening process. She should know. A professor at the University of Manitoba, Brûlé-Babel established the FHB screening nursery at the University’s Carman location back in 2001 and has managed it ever since. “It’s much more efficient to do disease screening in a nursery like this, […] Read more
Why weed surveys matter
Regular inventories across the Prairies provide a valuable indication of emerging problems
Reading Time: 4 minutes Every decade or so since the mid-1970s, scientists at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), with the help of many others, have co-ordinated and compiled weed surveys in each of the three Prairie provinces, counting, mapping, noting changes and marking trends. The most recent survey was conducted in 2014 and 2015 in Saskatchewan, with financial assistance […] Read more
Sprayer speed a turbulent topic
As sprayers go faster, aerodynamics start to come into play. A PAMI project is evaluating if they affect spray deposition
Reading Time: 3 minutes On the surface, spraying seems straightforward. But a closer look at the multitude of factors that can influence how best to get product from the spray tank to the plant surface reveals something akin to a massive puzzle with a couple of pieces missing. One of the people trying to make that picture complete is […] Read more
WGRF research offers faster herbicide testing
WGRF-funded research offers a rapid test to determine whether your weed escapes are Group-2 herbicide resistant
Reading Time: 4 minutes You sprayed 10 days ago and yet that patch of wild oats is still thriving. So you do what farmers across the Prairies do in this situation: take a sample and send it in to the Crop Protection Lab (CPL) in Regina and wait. Depending on the problem, some answers come in just a few […] Read more
Shatter losses in straight-cut canola
PAMI research funded by WGRF shows that the type of header makes a difference
Reading Time: 5 minutes Halfway through a study examining the role that harvest equipment plays in shatter losses when straight-cutting canola, Nathan Gregg is noticing some trends. “We saw higher losses out at the edges of headers,” says Gregg, a project manager with the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI) in Humboldt, Sask. “And losses dropped off as you moved […] Read more
Mycotoxin detection may get even simpler, cheaper
WGRF-funded research produces test that can detect fusarium toxins at the elevator
Reading Time: 4 minutes It’s a typical kind of research story,” says Maria DeRosa with a knowing laugh. “Something doesn’t quite work and you think, oh no! This isn’t what I anticipated. But then it turns into an opportunity you hadn’t thought of before.” She’s right, of course. Science is littered with stories of successful accidents, and for DeRosa, […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
