Reading Time: 3 minutes A cover crop that self-seeds year after year, grows whenever environmental conditions are right and doesn’t compete with principal crops. Sounds like a dream, but it exists: it’s called black medic. It’s been planted in Western Canada since the 1990s, but it’s not widely used, and in fact “it’s kind of a failure,” says Martin […] Read more
A cover crop ‘failure,’ but the story doesn’t end there
Black medic is a soil improver, and can be a good fit in situations where nitrogen is limited
Early season N applications
It’s time for a new look at an old nitrogen question
Reading Time: 4 minutes Significant debate has arisen in the past decade as researchers, agronomists, seed company representatives and farmers have tried to determine the best application methods and timing for nitrogen (N) fertilizers. The standard practice used to be to apply everything up front, mostly because it was easier to have it done all in one go at […] Read more
Manitoba soil temperatures allow for spring fertilizer
Winter ban lifted, with cautions
Reading Time: < 1 minute Farmers across Manitoba are now cleared to apply spring fertilizers including livestock manure on their fields, thanks to sufficiently warm soil temperatures, the province said Tuesday. Though the winter nutrient ban has been lifted, the province cautioned producers to “assess current weather conditions and periodically check weather forecasts” if they’re applying anytime between now and […] Read more
High fertilizer prices likely to climb more
Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Expect fertilizer prices to resume increasing, despite having fallen back recently. Prices began their sharp rise around the middle of December and beginning of January. “They will go higher as demand goes up at seeding time,” Mike Jubinville of MarketsFarm Pro in Winnipeg said. Jubinville reported urea prices have jumped $100 per tonne […] Read more
New in nitrogen stabilizers
Farm options for N stabilizers are expanding with two new products
Reading Time: 5 minutes [UPDATED: Feb. 3, 2021] Fertilizers are as much a part of spring on the farm as variety selection and weed control. It’s well understood that cereals, corn and canola respond to early season fertilizer applications, and there’s a growing body of research that soybeans do too. Importantly, there’s also more evidence that the nutrients going […] Read more
Facing green push on farm, fertilizer makers look to sea for growth
Reading Time: 4 minutes Winnipeg/Oslo | Reuters — Two of the world’s biggest fertilizer producers, CF Industries and Yara International, are seeking to cash in on the green energy transition by reconfiguring ammonia plants in the U.S. and Norway to produce clean energy to power ships. The consumption of oil for transportation is one of the top contributors to […] Read more
Fertilizer use fuelling climate-warming nitrous oxide emissions, study says
Reading Time: 2 minutes London | Reuters — Rising use of nitrogen-based fertilizers is driving up global emissions of nitrous oxide, a lesser-known greenhouse gas, complicating efforts to limit climate change, scientists reported in a study on Wednesday. Most of the focus in curbing climate-warming gas emissions has focused on the most abundant, carbon dioxide, and one of the […] Read more
Boost the N and boost the fungicide?
Study shows oat growers should make separate decisions on how much of each to apply
Reading Time: 3 minutes With the increasing demand for oats in the food market, growers these days are paying attention to both yield and quality, leading to questions about managing both nitrogen and fungicides. Does use of one affect how much you should use of the other? Not by much, according to research published this spring. Agriculture Canada crop […] Read more
In search of better N efficiency
Next-generation nitrification stabilizers are another step in plant health, with a boost to the environment too
Reading Time: 4 minutes There was a time when farming was simple: plow the ground, plant the seed and harvest the crop. Now, farmers need to make decisions on tillage practices, crop rotations, pest management, fertility, precision ag technology, soil health, genetics and a changing climate. And just to make it that much more challenging, each decision overlaps and […] Read more
Angry farmers cause Dutch police to close off parliament square
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Hague | Reuters — Police in the Dutch city of The Hague closed its central parliament square on Wednesday to keep out farmers protesting over what they see as attempts to blame them for nitrogen pollution. Thousands of irate farmers had driven tractors to The Hague hours earlier in their third large protest in […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
