Reading Time: 5 minutes At South East Research Farm in Redvers, Sask., research manager Lana Shaw is constantly cooking up new intercrop combinations. It’s a matter of great interest to the growing numbers of farmers who have adopted the practice. In 2019 there were about 70,000 intercropped acres documented by Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation (SCIC). In 2021, just 25,000 […] Read more
Crop insurance considering coverage on intercrops
Intercrop trials continue at Saskatchewan’s South East Research Farm
Saskatchewan is now flax central
SaskFlax and the Flax Council have joined to provide agronomic support and address issues such as market access
Reading Time: 4 minutes It’s been getting tougher for photographers to capture that iconic shot of adjoining fields of blooming flax and canola. There’s no shortage of yellow flowers, but Prairie flax area, recently averaging about 900,000 acres, is less than half of its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s. Last year’s area dropped even further to 775,000 acres, […] Read more
Mustard biofumigation: coming to a field near you?
Its anti-pest properties are confirmed in potato, but researchers are looking at whether it has prospects for other crops
Reading Time: 5 minutes There may be more than one reason to plant mustard in 2022. Some producers will hope to springboard off 2021’s shortages and grow food-grade mustard for domestic and international markets. But others might choose mustard for a less conventional reason: as a biofumigant cover crop to help quash soil-borne pests and diseases. Mustard contains glucosinolates […] Read more
Making flax harvest a little smoother
An IHARF study looks at four pre-harvest options for dry-down and weed control
Reading Time: 4 minutes Harvestability and residue management problems discourage some producers from growing flax, but one solution may be a pre-harvest herbicide or desiccant. Flax stalks are fibrous and tough to cut or chop, says Chris Holzapfel, research manager at the Indian Head Agricultural Research Foundation (IHARF). “Sometimes the stalks can stay green for a long time, which […] Read more
Winter camelina showing promise
It can be straight cut, and flea beetles aren’t a problem
Reading Time: 5 minutes Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s camelina breeder Christina Eynck seeded a couple of winter camelina trials in Saskatoon late in the last third of September 2019. Then there was an early freeze-up. “The plants were only in the cotyledon stage, and very few of them had developed the first true leaves. We thought, ‘This is not […] Read more
From flax in the field to shirt sleeves
Meet a Nuffield Canada farmer scholar with a vision for a value chain for Canadian-grown linen
Reading Time: 10 minutes [UPDATED: Jan. 11, 2021] Josh Oulton and his partner Patricia Bishop have grown flax on their Nova Scotia farm for nearly a decade, but not with an eye to the market that most Canadian flax growers are after. Instead, Oulton and Bishop grow varieties of flax that produce the plant-based fibre used to make linen, […] Read more
Putting a value on a shelterbelt
Yields drop immediately adjacent, but start to increase after 10 to 20 metres beyond
Reading Time: 4 minutes Areas such as road allowances, wetlands and shelterbelts take up land that could otherwise be used to produce grain. But does that mean that if you remove them, you’ll have more grain production? Maybe not. You might even get less, says Shathi Akhter, an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research scientist at Indian Head, Sask. She’s […] Read more
Don’t rely completely on the herbicide’s label for advice when seeding flax
Making sure the crop receives good fertility, planting into warm, moist soils and bumping up seeding rate can all help improve the outcome.” — Michelle Beaith, Sask Flax
Reading Time: 5 minutes If your flax isn’t looking as healthy as it should, you might consider the usual suspects — disease, insects or nutrient deficiency. But you might add another to the list — residual herbicides. “The main concern is impact on the crop such as decreased emergence and reduced plant stand,” says Michelle Beaith, an agronomist with […] Read more
Relay cropping
The goal for Ontario’s Dave McEachren is three crops in two years
Reading Time: 7 minutes For the 2018 growing season, Dave McEachren decided to revisit the past with something old and something new. A dozen years ago, he had tried relay cropping after hearing about it and reading the research that had been done on it at Ohio State University. The practice involves planting soybeans into a wheat crop as […] Read more
Empty soils
Today’s big-yield genetics really are draining the nutrient supply in our soils
Reading Time: 6 minutes The power of today’s corn hybrids and soybean varieties to exceed farmers’ expectations is a testament to the science of plant breeding, and also to the value of selecting the best elite genetics. That farmers in Eastern Canada have been able to push corn yields to 200 bu./ac. and soybeans to 60 bu./ac., even in […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
