Reading Time: 5 minutes A set of new sprayer nozzles can cost $500 to $1,000, while a new sprayer can clock in at $400,000. “But almost the entire probability of application success depends on the nozzle,” says Tom Wolf, co-owner of Agrimetrix Research and Training in Saskatoon. He’s not saying that farmers shouldn’t invest in a new sprayer if […] Read more
Getting better at fungicide application
You may be doing a good spraying job now, but new WGRF research shows it might be relatively easy to do a whole lot better
Exploring the soybean nutrient cycle
New research aims to end the guessing on fertilizing soybean rotations
Reading Time: 4 minutes If you had asked Saskatchewan farmers 25 years ago if they thought they could grow soybean, they would likely have laughed out loud at the very idea. Fast-forward to today, however, and StatsCan says 300,000 acres of soybeans were planted in Saskatchewan last year, up from 170,000 acres in 2013, and the province’s soy acreage […] Read more
The future of agronomic research
A new WGRF report sees urgent threats to the West’s research system
Reading Time: 5 minutes About five years ago, before she joined the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF), Pat Flaten was thinking about the state of agronomic research in Western Canada. At the time, she and her colleagues were thinking about bug researchers in Saskatoon. “We knew we had this great group of highly productive and experienced entomologists who were […] Read more
The mechanics of straight cutting canola
It’s a question more canola growers ask with every harvest. Do I go straight cut or swath?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Frankly, it’s not always easy to make harvest decisions because a lot can depend on variables beyond a grower’s control. But of the factors that a grower can control, the research until now has been weighted fairly heavily toward the crop itself — varietal suitability, optimal harvest timing and so on. What about harvest equipment? […] Read more
Agronomy project aims to raise yields 25 per cent
Complex project will study intensive systems approach to crop management
Reading Time: 5 minutes Sheri Strydhorst isn’t doing a lot of fishing this summer. And if her research bears out, you just might be willing to give it up, too. An agronomy research scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development in Barrhead, Strydhorst is leading an incredibly complex, multi-layered, multi-site, multi-crop research project designed to find out the extent […] Read more
The wild side of chickpeas
New genes from wild relatives will make chickpeas a better option for more farmers
Reading Time: 4 minutes It wasn’t all that long ago in Canada that it was hard to find hummus in a grocery store — unless you went to a specialty shop. “Now hummus is everywhere!” says Bunyamin Tar’an, associate professor at the University of Saskatchewan. “Any food store you go to has it, so it’s a growing market, and […] Read more
Not just for the birds
Promising new research is exploring a whole new human food market for canary seed, a minor crop that Canada’s farmers play a major role in
Reading Time: 4 minutes Did you know that Canada is the world’s largest supplier of canary seed? “Canada accounts for 75 per cent of the world trade in canary seed, with exports worth $50 to $90 million annually,” says Pierre Hucl, a professor in the department of plant sciences and crop development centre at at the University of Saskatchewan. […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
