Production, Agriculture News & Resources

The eBee Ag unit is lightweight — roughly 750 grams — yet is capable of following a detailed flight plan without the use of remote controls.

Satellites and ag drones link up

By targeting their strengths, these two technologies can complement each other

By Ralph Pearce October 16, 2014

Reading Time: 5 minutes For “eye-in-the-sky” technology, the last three years have seen some stunning advances, especially in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and satellite imaging systems. Yet while both made headlines about the same time in 2011, both also had limited success on the farm, as is often the case when new technologies first get into […] Read more

Production, Soybeans

Pest Patrol: Weed control update on vetch

Can I do anything to get rid of vetch before seeding soybeans?

By Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA October 15, 2014

Reading Time: < 1 minute In my last column, I discussed my optimism for vetch control in soybeans using a few different pre-plant burn-down herbicides. Specifically, I had been impressed by some preliminary results when either flumioxazin (found in Valtera, Step-Up, Fierce and Guardian Plus) or saflufenacil (found in Eragon, Integrity and Optill) was mixed with glyphosate and the adjuvant Merge. […] Read more

Without farmer-funded WGRF funds, research such as the Durum Wheat Plots at Kernen Crop Research Farm in Saskatoon would be limited.

Cereals, Crops, Production

WGRF investment dollars in research making the difference

Farmer funding has helped with the development of many well-known cereal varieties at the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre

By Brian Cross October 14, 2014

Reading Time: 4 minutes Another growing season is well underway at the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre (CDC), thanks in large part to farmer investments furnished through the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF). Wheat and barley breeders at Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre along with about 45 research technicians and field workers plant, maintain, monitor and harvest about 150,000 […] Read more

Production, Spring Wheat, Winter Wheat

Testing the quality of the 2014 wheat harvest

Here’s how Cigi figures out if your wheat will make good bread

By Trevor Hnatowich October 13, 2014

Reading Time: 3 minutes Helping customers make wise buying decisions is an important part of customer service. This is especially true when buyers are purchasing significant quantities of a commodity produced thousands of kilometres away — like wheat grown in Western Canada for example. For over 10 years, Cigi (Canadian International Grains Institute) has completed an annual harvest assessment, […] Read more

Shelterbelts are contributing more than we guessed to high, sustainable crop yields.

Crops, Production

Shelterbelts: a habitat for beneficial insects

Even if ripping out an old shelterbelt could help you work more acres per hour, it may leave you worse off

By Gord Leathers October 8, 2014

Reading Time: 5 minutes Back in the Dirty ’30s, farmers planted shelterbelts in a desperate bid to slow those drying winds and keep them from blowing our precious topsoil east. Now, at almost 100 years old, these wind-breaks have grown into stands of mature trees that continue to serve that purpose well. Not only do these shelterbelts curb wind […] Read more

Seed-colour change is when seeds show any amount of yellow or brown to indicate they’re turning from green. This photo demonstrates how exterior pod colour is not an indicator of seed-colour change. Green pods can have brown seeds inside.

Canola, Production

Cut canola later, combine slower come harvest

Canola harvest losses can be a lot worse than you think. Swathing later is one way to boost yield. Refining your combine ground speed and other settings is another

By Jay Whetter October 7, 2014

Reading Time: 4 minutes Canola growers are leaving a lot of yield on the table. Or, more accurately, they are leaving a lot of yield “off” the table and on the ground at harvest. Estimates put losses from the harvest process alone at two to five bu./ac., on average. Early swathing adds to that total. Growers have two key ways […] Read more

Clubroot control strategies do work, but the learning process is still underway.

Canola, Crops, Production

The do’s and don’ts of clubroot

Specific, timely actions can help prevent the spread of disease in your soil

By Gord Gilmour October 6, 2014

Reading Time: 2 minutes By now it’s clear. Some control strategies work. Others, says Dan Orchard, just don’t. Pulling plants from dead patches at the end of the season and looking for the disease certainly worked. But it would have worked even better if the recommendation right from the start had been to pull plants and check the roots. […] Read more

Canola, Crops, Production

Joining the clubroot club

The disease is escaping beyond its Edmonton hot zone, and the rest of the Prairie region must get its response right

By Gord Gilmour October 6, 2014

Reading Time: 11 minutes As you drive throughout the region surrounding Edmonton, canola is inescapable. It’s absolutely everywhere. And looking at the crops, it’s easy to understand why. With long days, cool nights and adequate rainfall, this is canola country pure and simple, and in most seasons, the crop flourishes under nearly ideal conditions. Canola has also been a crop […] Read more

Crops, Production

Another story on Canada fleabane?

Yes, because the message isn’t getting through, and the situation is getting serious

By Ralph Pearce September 12, 2014

Reading Time: 4 minutes It may seem repetitive, but that’s because the message isn’t changing. Canada fleabane keeps becoming a bigger problem with each passing year. The weed has been the topic of presentations at the Southwest Agricultural Conference dating back to 2012, as well as at FarmSmart Conferences and in a steady stream of weed and herbicide bulletins. […] Read more

Great yields start with great scouting, says grower Ken Hoeper. By early April, he’s walking his crop once a week. “Then we begin to increase that frequency as the crop begins to head out.”

Cereals, Crops, Production

The path to bigger wheat yields

Partly it’s genetics. Partly it’s agronomics too. But mainly it’s management

By Ralph Pearce September 11, 2014

Reading Time: 7 minutes Too often, talk about wheat yields in Eastern Canada turns to what’s happening in places like Kansas, the United Kingdom or northern Europe, as if our best hope to increase our productivity here is to use the ideas they’re developing there. Increasingly, however, the smart money is on taking a harder look at our own […] Read more

First of four vessels arrives in Churchill

Prairie cash wheat: Bids mixed, reacting to futures and loonie

Little variation seen in global grain supply and demand data

GFM Network News