Reading Time: 2 minutes A program to help rural Saskatchewan municipalities and local authorities cover costs of channel clearing and maintaining drains for flood prevention will now expand to include individual landowners. The province’s Water Security Agency (WSA) said Friday its $1 million cost-share rebate program will expand its eligibility beyond RMs, conservation and development area (C+D) authorities and […] Read more
Saskatchewan drainage work rebates expanded to farmers
Channel clearing, drain maintenance program shares eligible costs
Tile drainpipe supplier AccuPipe changes hands
Pipe manufacturer back with previous Manitoba owner
Reading Time: 2 minutes Winkler drain tile manufacturer AccuPipe is back with its previous owners after a six-year stint under U.S. management. Precision Land Solutions (PLS) announced Friday it has bought the AccuPipe business — which makes HDPE tubing for the farm, commercial and construction tile drainage markets — from Minnesota-based manufacturer Prinsco for an undisclosed sum. AccuPipe had […] Read more
Endangered species versus drainage
Farmers, contractors and municipalities are trying to cope with Ontario’s new Endangered Species Act
Reading Time: 7 minutes From time to time, farmers can find themselves caught by a development or issue that sneaks up on them. At first, it can seem trivial, even ridiculous. But it’s like ignoring a train in the distance: before you know it, it’s speeding up on you and it’s too late to react. Changes to Ontario’s Endangered […] Read more
Canada’s soils still degrading, albeit more slowly
Reading Time: 4 minutes The rate of degradation of soils in Canada has slowed, but it still is happening at a significant rate and there is still a lot to learn. There are no soil-perfect systems yet for crop production, attendees at the Summit on Canadian Soil Health held recently in Guelph heard repeatedly. No-till farming has declined in […] Read more
Saskatchewan to tap farm leaders for drainage board
Reading Time: 2 minutes Representatives from four Saskatchewan farmer organizations will sit on a new provincial advisory board on farm drainage policy. The provincial government on Tuesday announced the creation of two advisory boards: a policy development board and technical review board. Specific members haven’t yet been named to either board, but the province said the policy advisory board […] Read more
Saskatchewan to rework farm drainage complaint process
Reading Time: < 1 minute A new complaint process to deal with unauthorized drainage on Saskatchewan farmland is expected to lead to resolutions in months instead of years. Scott Moe, minister responsible for Saskatchewan’s Water Security Agency, on Tuesday introduced legislative amendments meant to encourage “producer co-operation through the formation of watershed associations and (allow) for producer-led projects.” Under the […] Read more
Saskatchewan orders drainage into Quill Lakes stopped
Reading Time: 3 minutes Saskatchewan property owners draining land into the overflowing Quill Lakes in the east-central part of the province without prior approvals are being ordered to close those drains. The provincial government’s Water Security Agency (WSA) on Thursday said it would invoke new drainage regulations passed last fall and require all unapproved drainage works flowing into the […] 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
The pros and cons of tile drainage
Being able to remove excess moisture is a big plus, but there are a lot of factors to take into account
Reading Time: 3 minutes It wasn’t long ago that if you asked most Alberta producers if they used tile drainage, they likely wouldn’t know what you were talking about. A common practice in Ontario and the U.S. Midwest, it’s only in recent years that Alberta growers have warmed to this system in which subsurface tubes remove excess moisture from […] Read more
Soil plays a major role in precision sustainability
Precision technology is teaching us some surprising eye-openers
Reading Time: 2 minutes Seriously? Can it really be better to till up and down some slopes instead of across? That’s one of the conclusions from early work with precision agriculture in Australia, where the technology is proving a boon for field crop productivity. It turns out that older technologies have blinded us to much of what’s really going […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
