Reading Time: 7 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – When it comes to on-farm decision making, the bottom line for most farmers is often, well, the bottom line. A 2019 survey of Manitoba farmers bore that out. The survey, conducted on behalf of the Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers, asked farmers which factors were important to them when planning their crop […] Read more
Crop rotations and the bottom line
Prairie researchers examine how different crop rotations affect net economic returns
Crop insurance considering coverage on intercrops
Intercrop trials continue at Saskatchewan’s South East Research Farm
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
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
Two farmers make the case for pea-canola intercropping
Growing two crops in the same field sounds like it could be difficult, but these two farmers have figured it out and say the result is higher profit
Reading Time: 9 minutes Intercropping is an ancient farming practice. Farmers in Meso-america thousands of years ago started growing “the three sisters” — corn, beans and squash — together in the same fields, letting the symbiotic nature of their biologies provide an overall better result than growing them separately. Strong cornstalks provided a “pole” for the climbing beans. Beans […] Read more
Two research projects looking at intercrops
Western Ag Innovations run intercrop trials in southern Alberta
Reading Time: 4 minutes Eric Bremer is leading a research project on intercropping in the Lethbridge area. Bremer was involved in intercropping research as a grad student back in the 1980s and jumped at the opportunity to look at it again with the support of Western Ag Innovations owner Ken Greer and a research grant from Alberta Pulse Growers […] Read more
The building block of soil
Soil scientists are putting more focus on the value of organic matter for feeding important microbes and boosting moisture-managing capacity
Reading Time: 5 minutes Without it, soil is just dirt. There’s a new recognition of the importance of soil organic matter, and not only for improving crop yields. It’s also a tool in the effort to mitigate climate change. Blain Hjertaas, a holistic management farmer and grazier at Redvers, Sask., participates in the Soil Carbon Challenge, an international “competition” […] Read more
Crowd research
Is this crowdfunded program a sign of the way farmers will have to go to get the research that governments are slow to pay for?
Reading Time: 5 minutes It was a cold, mid-April morning near Redvers in the south-east corner of a decidedly un-spring-like Saskatchewan, and the flat fields all around us were still blanketed in white. Between the snow and the clouds, you could hardly tell where the sky ended and the earth began. I had arranged to meet research manager Lana […] Read more
Is there a tipping point on intercropping?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Farmers’ current interest in intercropping has caught some off guard. On November 29, 2017, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture ran an intercropping workshop in Regina. Workshop organizers expected about 40 people. But 140 people showed up, including several from Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Michigan. Sask Ag ran a second intercropping workshop in January, and another 200 […] Read more
The funding crunch in agricultural research
Reading Time: 2 minutes Why are Lana Shaw and her colleagues having trouble securing funding for intercropping research? For one thing, funding is generally tight in public ag research. The South East Research Farm receives $75,000 a year for core operations, as do the other research sites in the Agri-ARM network. On top of that, surrounding municipalities have kicked […] Read more
Four ways to increase your organic matter
A question that I hear a lot is, “How do cover crops fit into a grain operation?” Lots of grain farmers have no desire to get into the livestock business and no interest in producing hay. But many have some soil issues that need to be addressed. This can be done by buying more iron[...]
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A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
