Reading Time: 9 minutes Over the past dozen years the canola industry has poured an ocean of effort into halting the spread of clubroot around the Edmonton area. And while there have been advances such as new resistant varieties, one uncomfortable truth remains — the disease continues to spread. Dan Orchard, a Canola Council of Canada agronomist who discovered […] Read more
Clubroot continues its march across prairie canola fields
So far nothing appears to have slowed the spread of clubroot, so some are suggesting it might be time to rethink our approach
Do your homework before jumping into growing soybeans head first
Soybean Guide: Soybean varieties and the business case for growing them have been improving, but Saskatchewan isn’t Iowa yet. Even seed salesmen recommend going slowly at first
Reading Time: 5 minutes Soybeans have expanded well beyond their traditional base in Manitoba’s Red River Valley, so growers even farther west into Saskatchewan are giving them a close look. But they might want to wade through the hype before making any big decisions, says one agronomist who’s been working with new growers. Dieter Schwarz, a market development agronomist […] Read more
A busy year for flea beetles in canola
Beetles galore! Best practices for 2016 remain seed treatment and good stand establishment
Reading Time: 4 minutes The new generation of adult flea beetles was thick on canola fields in August, nibbling pods and capping off what had been a busy year for the costly insect pest. Bob Elliott, integrated pest management scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Saskatoon, saw a fivefold increase in adults captured in sticky traps in […] Read more
The risk of tried-and-true cereal varieties
Many growers may not realize just how much the agronomic package has improved over the last few years
Reading Time: 7 minutes New cereal varieties sometimes just can’t seem to get any respect. While many of each season’s new canola hybrids are snapped up well before planting season, new wheats and barleys often linger on the showroom floor, hoping someone will notice them. That’s an unfair and out-of-date attitude, says respected wheat breeder Ron DePauw, recently retired […] Read more
Farming for profitability
Precision ag systems can take your ability to analyze profits way past yesterday’s cost-revenue calculations
Reading Time: 7 minutes It’s been the mantra of agricultural economists, bankers and even agronomists for the past 20 years. “Know your cost of production.” At every podium at every conference, you can almost guarantee the question is going to get asked. How can a farmer farm successfully without knowing their cost of production? We’re always told every successful […] Read more
The dirt on soil tests
With soil nutrient levels dropping, how do you need to change your soil-testing program and fertility rates?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Fewer farmers are sampling their soils. In Ontario, the numbers say fewer than 30 per cent of farmers test every three years, even though this trend is leading to a data gap at a time when everything else seems to be changing too, such as the rapid climb in yield potentials, and elite corn hybrids […] Read more
Where water leaves the farm
Improve your productivity by starting where water leaves your farm, and then work backwards
Reading Time: 4 minutes In the chase for higher yields and improved production, farmers have tapped into everything from precision ag systems to a return to cover crops. Now comes a concept that might not only boost yields and enhance soil health, it might also alleviate some of the pressure on farmers that starts with surface run-off heading into […] Read more
Win the right battle – for the sake of food
Not only is the food we eat bad for us, but the practices that produced it are unsound too. Or so goes the message that too many consumers get too often from our mainstream media
Reading Time: 5 minutes The science is clear. “If you look at Western Canada and you look at a four-year crop rotation that starts anchored by a pulse crop at the front end, I believe that’s one of the most sustainable farming systems in the world,” says John Oliver, president of Maple Leaf Bio-Concepts. Many of the loudest, harshest […] Read more
What you need to know from crop input suppliers
Soybean Guide: It’s time to demand more individualized agronomic help and product support
Reading Time: 10 minutes Walking around the grounds of Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show in 2014, one of the messages that was shared among dealers and company representatives was this notion that farmers are looking for a more focused approach to boosting production and following practices that are more sustainable. One theme that was touched on repeatedly was that the […] 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
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
