Reading Time: 5 minutes Outside of maybe the health care field, there are few sectors that are as innovative and changing as rapidly as agriculture. It’s what I’ll write about in this series of columns for Country Guide, because frankly, some of the technologies that are coming off the drawing boards are going to challenge the way we think […] Read more
Could the future of farming lie indoors?
Innovation: The scale seems much too small, say farmers. But that may be its greatest strength
Nutrient balance key to avoiding sulphur deficient soils
Production of more high-sulphur demand crops such as pulses and canola is creating a shortage in some fields
Reading Time: 4 minutes In order for any crop to use fertilizer efficiently, it needs to have all of its nutrient deficiencies met, says Miles Dyck, an associate professor of soil science in the department of renewable resources at the University of Alberta. The most common nutrient deficiencies in Western Canada are nitrogen and phosphorus, but because of the […] Read more
Swiss government urges voters to reject more state help for farmers
Reading Time: 2 minutes Zurich | Reuters — The Swiss government urged voters on Tuesday to reject more help for farmers and other proposals for agriculture in a referendum next month, saying they would send food prices rocketing and hurt the economy. Switzerland will two hold referendums on Sept. 23 — one on giving more state support to farmers […] Read more
Research digs into the question of deep banding
The practice could make immobile nutrients more available for three major crops
Reading Time: 3 minutes The jury is still out on whether deep banding fertilizer is worth the time and money — but researchers across Alberta are hoping to settle the debate once and for all. “I don’t think there’s any proof yet that deep banding works,” said Ken Coles, general manager of Farming Smarter. “We want to have some […] Read more
Crowd research
Is this crowdfunded program a sign of the way farmers will have to go to get the research that governments are slow to pay for?
Reading Time: 5 minutes It was a cold, mid-April morning near Redvers in the south-east corner of a decidedly un-spring-like Saskatchewan, and the flat fields all around us were still blanketed in white. Between the snow and the clouds, you could hardly tell where the sky ended and the earth began. I had arranged to meet research manager Lana […] Read more
Is there a tipping point on intercropping?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Farmers’ current interest in intercropping has caught some off guard. On November 29, 2017, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture ran an intercropping workshop in Regina. Workshop organizers expected about 40 people. But 140 people showed up, including several from Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Michigan. Sask Ag ran a second intercropping workshop in January, and another 200 […] Read more
The funding crunch in agricultural research
Reading Time: 2 minutes Why are Lana Shaw and her colleagues having trouble securing funding for intercropping research? For one thing, funding is generally tight in public ag research. The South East Research Farm receives $75,000 a year for core operations, as do the other research sites in the Agri-ARM network. On top of that, surrounding municipalities have kicked […] Read more
2 covers — 25 species
P.E.I. potato growers are exploring diverse approaches to solve their low organic matter levels with cover crops
Reading Time: 6 minutes Soil organic matter has become a popular topic of discussion in the past year. In Ontario, a report from late 2016 indicated soil organic matter (SOM) levels in many parts of the province are at 15-year lows, coinciding with increasing interest in the use of cover crops, reduced- or no-till management and longer rotations in […] Read more
Tillage erosion costing farmers billions
The pressure to get an early start on newer crops such as corn and soybeans encourages tillage practices which may not be sustainable
Reading Time: 5 minutes This past spring was one of the worst on record for so-called “snirt,” or dirty snow, in ditches across the Prairies — a sign that wind is moving loose topsoil to the margins of fields. While snirt is an indication that fields are susceptible to wind erosion, however, University of Manitoba soil science professor David […] Read more
Conventional thinking
Machinery manufacturers are offering European farmers new options for in-crop weed and pest control
Reading Time: 5 minutes Walking the 15 kilometres or so of aisles at Agritechnica in November, one trend was hard to miss. It was in the tillage segment, where the number of options and the sophistication of that technology is obviously on the rise. Efficiency has always been the driving force behind farm machinery evolution, but it’s clear that […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
