Reading Time: 5 minutes Get used to a new term in corn production — “solar corridor.” The idea is to provide a wide enough row spacing to allow sunlight to reach intercrops such as clover and hairy vetch. How wide? How does 60 inches sound? Intercropping is attracting more interest from straight grain as well as livestock producers. Grain […] Read more
Going wide on corn row spacing
In this research, allowing more space for the intercrop has little or no effect on corn yield
Soybean cyst nematode tough in dry beans too
The pest can be especially devastating in certain classes of edible beans
Reading Time: 6 minutes It’s a case of “something old, something new” for growers with edible beans. Soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is now a threat to producers with cranberry beans, white beans, kidneys and adzukis. Nematodes have been affecting soybean production in parts of Ontario since the late 1980s, and now it appears they have the capacity to weaken […] Read more
The U.S. ‘No. 1 weed problem’ heads north
Other weeds are higher priority for now, but be on the lookout for Palmer amaranth
Reading Time: 4 minutes It can grow two to three inches per day and reach eight feet tall. Each plant can produce more than a million seeds that can emerge right through the growing season. It has reduced yield up to 91 per cent in corn and 79 per cent in soybeans. It’s resistant to glyphosate and multiple other […] Read more
PHOTOS: How to identify Palmer amaranth
Reading Time: < 1 minute The amaranth species look fairly similar as seedlings. Nobody wants to wait until they’re in seed to figure that out. When in doubt, ask an agronomist.” — Tammy Jones, Manitoba Agriculture. For the latest information, visit the North Dakota State University website.
Avoiding another year of ‘snirt’
North Dakota farmers and researchers are finding success in controlling soybean field erosion by planting cover crops
Reading Time: 5 minutes “Snirt” became a buzzword in Prairie agricultural journalism in 2017 and 2018, and for good reason: the dirty snow lining ditches along highways was a telling indicator that there had been a soybean field there last season. It’s a problem across the Red River Valley region in particular, where soybean producers are used to tilling […] Read more
Sunflowers need a hybrid lift
With Western sunflower acres dropping sharply in recent years, new varieties are needed to claw acres back from easier-to-grow soybeans
Reading Time: 4 minutes There are fewer sights more appealing than a field of mature sunflowers, but this golden vision is growing rarer. The reason is simple — sunflowers are losing out to soybeans. In Canada’s biggest sunflower province, Manitoba, acres dropped under 62,000 this year, with a little more than half the crop going to black oil and […] Read more
Should drought-stressed alfalfa be clipped?
Clipping drought-stressed alfalfa will not help it regrow faster when rainfall or moisture comes back
Reading Time: 2 minutes North Dakota State University – Many parts of the state where alfalfa is grown are experiencing moderate to severe drought, which is causing spring alfalfa growth to wilt, and shoots and leaves to dry. “During drought, forage is likely in short supply and farmers are likely to try to get as much forage as possible,” […] Read more
Learning from organic agriculture
These conventional farms are adapting techniques from organic agriculture — with a little time and care
Reading Time: 10 minutes Agriculture is always in search of the next innovation, but as most growers learn — some, the hard way — there is no silver-bullet solution. If you’re going to change things for the better, it’s going to take time, effort and likely a departure from the norm. Yet with lower crop prices, growers are also […] Read more
Waterhemp knocking at Canada’s door
This cousin of the feared Palmer amaranth has reached the Canadian border, and could soon begin marching across the West
Reading Time: 4 minutes A new alien is lurking in the fields of North Dakota and Minnesota, preparing to invade Canada and cause no end of trouble. The potential enemy is a noxious weed called waterhemp, a member of the pigweed family and a cousin of Palmer amaranth, a glyphosate-resistant weed currently plaguing cotton and soybean growers in the […] Read more
The Corn Belt moves north
Monsanto has plans to produce varieties that can be grown on half the acres in Western Canada
Reading Time: 7 minutes It might not look like it at first glance, but this nondescript boardroom in a steel building beside a busy highway in southern Manitoba is the heart of the western Canadian corn pipeline. The site near Carman is home to Monsanto’s major corn expansion project, announced just over two years ago with much fanfare and […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
