Reading Time: 4 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – It was just over 10 years ago that Marla Riekman started getting the phone calls on a new soil issue. The provincial soil specialist with Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development suddenly started to hear from growers in the Red River Valley who were alarmed at the appearance of salinity in places they’d never seen it […] Read more
Soybeans early signal of soil issues
Most affected spots frequently in high-traffic areas in fields
Still sifting through genes, but…
Plant breeding has always been about testing to see how one gene interacts with another, but today it can be done much more quickly
Reading Time: 4 minutes Today’s new generation of plant breeders are often called “gene jockeys,” although they’re actually more like cowboys rounding up “genotypes” into a common corral called a “genome.” Then they look for other genomes to add to the corral so they can improve the herd. Previous generations of plant breeders did the same thing, but they […] Read more
Going underground for soil ecology
Soil is far more than just dirt. Are you nurturing the organisms that help it grow great crops?
Reading Time: 5 minutes A warm, early-July breeze blew through a wheat field in northeastern Saskatchewan, not far from Nipawin. The heads had just emerged and were still green, but the field was taking on that fuzzy look that you typically get with a fresh, bearded cereal. This field was unusual, however, because even though you couldn’t see it, […] Read more
The ‘ghostly nature’ of phantom nutrients
Micronutrients are the acid test of crop fertility. Some believe in them. Others just don’t
Reading Time: 5 minutes For the most part, our Prairie soils aren’t short of micronutrients. Deficiencies are rare, and they are also difficult to pin down, in part because such shortages are usually associated with highly localized soil conditions and because some of these conditions change with varying moisture or pH levels. As well, since these micronutrients are only […] Read more
Livestock biosecurity strategies come to canola
Canola and soybean farmers are just beginning to see the wave of biosecurity that could sweep them the way it swept Canada’s hog and poultry sectors
Reading Time: 6 minutes When Manitoba agronomist Terry Buss goes out on a call from the Beausejour office, he takes a big trunk full of plastic boot covers in the back of the pickup. There are disinfectants in the trunk too, and other cleaning supplies as well, and he uses them all. Buss has adopted a brand new form […] Read more
The Journey: A quick history of shipping grain to port by rail
From Prairie farm to ocean port, our rail lines still shock the imagination with their engineering and bravado
Reading Time: 9 minutes It’s a trip that is so formidable, it weakened the knees of generations of politicians, entrepreneurs and engineers alike. Everybody could tell the northern Great Plains would be an ideal place for growing cereal crops, and they knew too that the world would love to eat what we grow, but getting those crops to port […] Read more
PHOTOS: Trains, mountains, and a marvel of engineering
Engineers have literally moved mountains to ship goods across Canada
Reading Time: < 1 minute Canada created a rail system that in turn created the country, and keeps creating the West today. If it too rarely gets called one of the wonders of the world, that only shows how poorly we understand it.
The farm drones are getting closer
Airframe, camera and computer technologies are rapidly evolving in favour of farmer applications
Reading Time: 5 minutes The next revolution in farming isn’t about chemistry or genetics. It’s about scouting, and the good news is that the enabling technology has come several giant steps closer in just the last two years, thanks to unmanned aerial vehicles (popularly called UAVs or drones) which offer a visual platform for scientific crop monitoring. Drones are […] Read more
Tractor simulator bridges the gap between operator and computer
Simulators are helping engineers finally figure out how best to get your brain and the tractor’s brain working together
Reading Time: 6 minutes It’s a good run with the tractor this time. The driver has no trouble piloting a straight line across the field, the machine is humming happily, and the display monitor confirms that all is well. The discs are cutting nicely through the field trash too, and the seed is getting dropped right on target. Then […] Read more
Here come the farm robots
Robotic tractors are already in advanced field tests, and the results are producing great optimism
Reading Time: 5 minutes Phil Jennings of Kinze Manufacturing gets a big kick out of riding in their modified tractor when it’s hauling one of their grain carts during a real Iowa harvest. When the call goes out for the cart, the tractor starts chugging across the field to where the combine is working. Jennings just sits there and […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
