Reading Time: 5 minutes For the most part, our Prairie soils aren’t short of micronutrients. Deficiencies are rare, and they are also difficult to pin down, in part because such shortages are usually associated with highly localized soil conditions and because some of these conditions change with varying moisture or pH levels. As well, since these micronutrients are only […] Read more
The ‘ghostly nature’ of phantom nutrients
Micronutrients are the acid test of crop fertility. Some believe in them. Others just don’t
Exploring the soybean nutrient cycle
New research aims to end the guessing on fertilizing soybean rotations
Reading Time: 4 minutes If you had asked Saskatchewan farmers 25 years ago if they thought they could grow soybean, they would likely have laughed out loud at the very idea. Fast-forward to today, however, and StatsCan says 300,000 acres of soybeans were planted in Saskatchewan last year, up from 170,000 acres in 2013, and the province’s soy acreage […] Read more
A new nutrient for crops?
We’ve always known carbon is important. Now, a new project is looking how to apply carbon like fertilizer to boost yields
Reading Time: 6 minutes The importance of carbon in agriculture has never been in scientific doubt. Whether it’s a component of photosynthesis — in the form of CO2 — or as part of the bigger picture carbon-nitrogen (C:N) ratio or the even more complicated carbon cycle, there’s no getting around the element’s value for farming. That doesn’t mean we […] Read more
A new era for manure?
European design promises to put more manure where it can push the throttle on crop yields
Reading Time: 9 minutes If you’ve been around livestock production for the past 20 years, the concept of using drag hoses to apply manure won’t strike you as anything so very new, yet the arrival of the Vogelsang dribble-bar application system with its precision distribution is generating a lot of interest and anticipation. The unit was on display at […] Read more
Manure for cover crop
Interest in cover crops keeps building; now add some more nutrients
Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s undeniable that interest in cover crops has taken off in the past two or three years. Red clover is making a comeback, there’s more being done with multi-species covers, and there’s renewed interest in seeding covers into standing corn crops. There’s even more research into using cover crops as emergency forage sources. Now comes […] Read more
Humanity must stop treating soil like dirt
Why we care: Farmers around the world know soil is the stuff of life
Reading Time: 6 minutes Winnipeg was the site of 2014’s World Congress on Conservation Agriculture where farmers, agronomists, researchers and policy-makers from 33 countries around the globe met to discuss the world’s soil, as the stories in the special ‘Sustainability’ section in the July 2014 issue of Country Guide reveal. In fact, Country Guide, and our farm readers, feel so strongly about […] Read more
Snow job
First it was record rainfall last fall. Then it was near-record snow. What’s next?
Reading Time: 7 minutes When it comes to spring planting, the one thing that keeps farmers well-grounded is the weather. They can plan their seed choice, lay out a timetable and know how they’d like things to happen — but in the end it’s nature that holds the final say. Farmers will start planting only when the conditions allow. […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
