Reading Time: 10 minutes Proponents of big yields often make the same observation. Whether it’s in corn with American record holders Francis Childs or Herman Warsaw, or it’s in soybeans, with Dr. Gary Ablett at Ridgetown Campus once pegging our potential soybean yield at 250 bu./ac., the talk always turns to “attention to detail.” Yet what confounds Eric Richter […] Read more
Grow soybeans like corn
Increasing your management intensity with extra attention to weeds, pests, uniformity and canopy closure
New soybean varieties in 2017 for Western Canada
Demand for soybeans just keeps rising on the Prairies
Reading Time: 7 minutes Three years ago, something interesting occurred in soybean production in Canada: in 2013, Manitoba became the second-leading producer of soybeans in the country. The province’s 1,068,200 acres of soybeans eclipsed the 847,000 acres produced in Quebec. And the figures continue to rise with each passing year, to the point where nearly 1.4 million acres came […] Read more
What’s new in soybean varieties for Eastern Canada in 2017?
Disease packages join newer herbicide-resistance technologies at the top of the value list
Reading Time: 13 minutes Last year, the big news in soybean varieties could be summed up in one technological term: Xtend, which became part of the fall lineup for many of the seed companies. Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show was abuzz with talk about Xtend, with demonstration plots aplenty, and all sorts of signage promoting the new system’s platform, Roundup […] Read more
New seed treatment in a different class
A new mode of action could help confound several pests in eastern Canadian corn
Reading Time: 3 minutes Corn growers across Eastern Canada looking for help against early-season insect pests such as wireworms, black cutworms and armyworms will likely have a new option for the 2017 growing season. The timing may be ideal, considering the frustration over new regulations governing the use of neonicotinoid-based seed treatments, which will further tighten for the coming […] Read more
SeCan at 40
Born in 1976, is SeCan living up to its promise to deliver better, more cost-effective genetics by supporting public research?
Reading Time: 6 minutes In the days leading up to 1976, new public sector seed varieties were few and far between, as Ray Askin recalls things. Askin, who grows seed at Portage la Prairie and is today’s president of the Manitoba Seed Growers Association also remembers it as a time marred by disorganization. “SeCan gave a structured format for […] Read more
Another big hurdle for Canadian producers
With MRLs, the problems begin when a test used for regulating trade gets treated as a verdict on food safety
Reading Time: 6 minutes In the past 25 years, agriculture has seen a full gamut of new programs from environmental farm plans to neonicotinoid-use restrictions in Ontario. Some are relatively farm friendly, some less so. Like them or hate them, they’re all meant to be in the name of sustainability, traceability and food safety and security, which are under […] Read more
Success on Great Lakes phosphorus
Strong farm participation in GLASI programs shows agriculture is serious about environmental health
Reading Time: 6 minutes Great Lakes pollution has become a critical issue in the past five years. In 2011, parts of Lake Erie were mired in a serious algal bloom, prompting the International Joint Commission (IJC) to establish Lake Erie Ecosystem Priority (LEEP). The IJC issued a report in February 2014 identifying agriculture as the leading contributor to the […] Read more
Back to the basics, with red clover
Farm experience and university research add up to make a strong case in favour of the cover crop
Reading Time: 7 minutes Over the past three years, a curious turnaround has spread across Ontario. Some farm watchers explain it by pointing to lower commodity prices. Others attribute it to the increased attention on soil health and sustainability. Either way, interest in cover crops is growing stronger and stronger. On some farms, the focus is on novel, multi-species […] Read more
Pearce: Initiative aims to bridge rural-urban gap
Reading Time: 2 minutes In agriculture today, some see only the negative and the naysayers when it comes to “ag awareness.” Dave Baute and Stephen Denys see opportunity, and they’re building a partnership they hope can break down barriers and create new information channels between those in the country and those in cities and towns. “Be Rooted. Be Involved” […] Read more
Quebec farmer wins ‘Seed for Life’
Reading Time: 2 minutes Farming continues to grow more complex, as costs vary for land, fuel, fertilizer, equipment, chemicals and seed, many of which can challenge a grower every year. But what if seed costs were greatly reduced — not just for one year, but for 25? The question of “What if?” no longer applies to Marc-Andre Pilon, who […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
