Irrigation Archives | Country Guide

Friedhelm Hoffmann has fertigated corn, soybeans and wheat, which he states yielded 140 bushels per acre.

Get there on time

Timely delivery is a big plus for “fertigation,” but can you afford the costs and the management demands?

By Ralph Pearce January 10, 2019

Reading Time: 7 minutes In precision agriculture, the focus is typically on the low-hanging fruit, i.e. the use of yield data to create variable-rate fertilizer scripts, investing in individual row units with automatic down-force, or using aerial imagery to pinpoint trouble spots in a field. Most such discussions are also confined to choices about soil, seed and fertility. Yet […] Read more

Crops, Reuters, Soybeans

Coffee may profit more than soy in Brazil’s new farming frontier

By roberto-samora March 27, 2018

Reading Time: 2 minutes Luis Eduardo Magalhaes, Brazil | Reuters –– Farmers tending vast, flat soy and cotton fields that spread as far as the eye can see in northeastern Brazil are finding that coffee crops might provide higher profits in the country’s agricultural frontier. More coffee farms are being developed in the western part of Bahia state, which […] Read more

General, Machinery

Ontario power utilities offer farm water pump rebate

By Country Guide Staff March 25, 2018

Reading Time: 2 minutes Ontario farmers buying certain types of high-efficiency water pumping systems for irrigation, horticulture or stock watering could now be up for rebates. Hydro One and Niagara Peninsula Energy (NPEI) on Friday announced the AgriPump rebate program, which the two electricity utilities described as the first plan of its kind in the province. For farmer customers […] Read more

“We have identified several soybean varieties with a potential of producing more than 50 bu./ac. marketable seed yields.” – Manjula Bandara, CDCS.

Crops, Soybeans

Growing soybeans in southern Alberta

Farmers would like the rotation option, but heat units are marginal and soybeans must compete with high-value irrigation crops

By Jeff Melchior March 23, 2018

Reading Time: 7 minutes For some Prairie farmers, the question of whether to introduce soybeans into the rotation may seem like a no-brainer. They’re good nitrogen fixers and have proven a hit on rain-fed land in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, where soybean acreage has increased dramatically over the past decade. But if you’re a producer in Alberta, the answer is […] Read more

A drip line is shown in proximity to standing corn.

Crops

Subsurface drip irrigation

Interest is growing even in corn and soybeans, although it’s not for everyone

By Ralph Pearce June 12, 2017

Reading Time: 9 minutes When it comes to being a better farm manager, many retailers, extension personnel and researchers talk about cost of production and “controlling the controllable,” which leads to the usual factors coming up, including seed selection, soil fertility, residue management and weed control. But the one factor that is always left off anyone’s list of controllable […] Read more

Crops, Potatoes

Maritime potato harvest a pleasant surprise

Late-season rains gave the crop a lift, but access to irrigation remains a concern for Island growers

By Andy Walker May 5, 2017

Reading Time: 4 minutes The 2016 harvest in the country’s largest potato-producing province proved to be a pleasant surprise. By mid-August, many growers in Prince Edward Island were starting to brace for a below-average harvest. A dry summer saw much of the crop, especially in the central part of the province, slow to size up and problems with both […] Read more

Crops, Reuters, Weather

California rules led to near 25 per cent cut in water use

By Sharon Bernstein April 4, 2016

Reading Time: 2 minutes Sacramento | Reuters –– Residents and businesses in drought-stricken California cut back water use by nearly 25 per cent from June 2015 through the end of February 2016 — enough to supply nearly six million people for a year, officials said Monday. The state’s first ever mandatory cutbacks in water use were imposed by Democratic […] Read more

Crops, Reuters, Weather

Drought exposes cracks in Australia’s acclaimed water market

By Colin Packham September 20, 2015

Reading Time: 3 minutes Sydney | Reuters — A pioneering Australian scheme to improve the management of water in the world’s driest inhabited continent is facing its first real test as an intensifying El Nino threatens crops and builds tensions between farmers and environmentalists. The three-year old management plan for the Murray-Darling basin, an area twice the size of […] Read more

Tile drainage, long common in Ontario and the U.S. Midwest, is now attracting more attention in Alberta.

Crops

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

By Jeff Melchior July 15, 2015

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

Potatoes

Mycorrhizal fungi a potential yield booster in potatoes

Potato Guide: A relative newcomer to the fields, the benefits are hard to ignore

By Ralph Pearce July 9, 2015

Reading Time: 4 minutes An intensively farmed crop such as potatoes always demands diligence in production. In addition to irrigation and finding suitable rotation crops, growers are constantly looking for an upper hand in dealing with nutrient issues and measures aimed at improving soil health and overall production. That might be where there’s an intriguing fit for a relatively […] Read more

U.S. livestock: CME cattle futures end up on firm cash trade

Prairies can expect far better harvest weather this fall

Funds’ net long keeps growing in canola

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