Reading Time: 5 minutes A warm, early-July breeze blew through a wheat field in northeastern Saskatchewan, not far from Nipawin. The heads had just emerged and were still green, but the field was taking on that fuzzy look that you typically get with a fresh, bearded cereal. This field was unusual, however, because even though you couldn’t see it, […] Read more
Going underground for soil ecology
Soil is far more than just dirt. Are you nurturing the organisms that help it grow great crops?
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
Save Ontario farmers, save farmland in the process
10 years later, was setting up the Ontario’s Greenbelt worth the pain? More farmers are saying yes
Reading Time: 7 minutes Rapidly rising populations, sprawling cities, shrinking farmland, and the feared effects of climate change prompted the Ontario government to create its Greenbelt around Toronto 10 years ago, with the goal of protecting some of the nation’s top agricultural land from development and fragmentation. After a decade, it seems it may be working. The greenbelt approach […] Read more
The 4R crop nutrient solution
Here’s an approach to keep consumers happy, and to boost farmers’ productivity too
Reading Time: 5 minutes Most growers have heard of “The 4Rs” and they know it stands for applying the right source at the right rate, at the right time and to the right place. But there’s still a long way to go to actually implement the concept. “It seems the time was right for a concept that helped explain […] Read more
All in a day’s work
The Van Kessel family redefines what it means to ‘stay busy’
Reading Time: 4 minutes In the old days, farmers were kept busy finding enough hours in a day to get the planting and harvesting done, as well as all the other chores that went with running a farm and keeping up with the demands of day-to-day living. It was simply a fact of life in agriculture. If you don’t […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
