A newly developed system created by Claas and a consortium of companies uses a stereoscopic camera to guide an implement during in-crop tillage.

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

Figure 1. A September germinated seedling with its three main divided segments.

Pest Patrol: Controlling wild carrot in no till

#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA

Reading Time: 3 minutes Q: I am a long-time no tiller. I have a problem with increasing populations of wild carrot, mostly in my (conventional) soybean fields. This year in Roundup Ready corn, I have applied up to three litres of Transorb 540 and still have green carrot at harvest-time. What is the solution? Do I need to do […] Read more


(SeedHawk.com)

Seed Hawk to take parent firm’s name

Reading Time: < 1 minute For Saskatchewan seeding, planting and tillage equipment maker Seed Hawk, the company name is changing but the brand remains the same. Seed Hawk, which has been 100 per cent owned by Swedish equipment manufacturer Vaderstad since 2013, has been renamed Vaderstad Industries effective Tuesday. The two companies said the name change “reflects the fuller integration […] Read more

The Breton Classical Plots were established in 1930, just east of the town of Breton and 100 km southwest of Edmonton.

Some old ways aren’t better, but…

Long-term rotation study underlines that summerfallow harms soil health, but the old mixed farming model looks pretty good

Reading Time: 4 minutes You might think that a long-term crop test might mean five years. A decade would be remarkable. But what could plots tell you about soil health if they’ve been going on for 87 years? They would tell you that Prairie farmers were right to stop keeping fields in fallow as part of a rotation and […] Read more


The cover crop plot with the most complex blend of different species, including planting dates, method and rates.

PHOTOS: Farm Show demo digs deep on value of soil health

Roots, worm casts and different cover blends show amazing effects

Reading Time: < 1 minute Soil health has been a buzz phrase that’s gone from a whisper three to five years ago to a chorus that’s spreading across the agrifood industry. That goes to show the swinging of the pendulum away from plowing and aggressive tillage — and it seems to be gaining more advocates with each passing day. This […] Read more

Bob Sandford of the United Nations University says agriculture productivity needs to be increased, but with limited impact on earth systems. (John Greig photo)

Canada’s soils still degrading, albeit more slowly

Reading Time: 4 minutes The rate of degradation of soils in Canada has slowed, but it still is happening at a significant rate and there is still a lot to learn. There are no soil-perfect systems yet for crop production, attendees at the Summit on Canadian Soil Health held recently in Guelph heard repeatedly. No-till farming has declined in […] Read more


The damage that over-tillage does is plain to see in soil quality.

The news on soil health

This time, will farmers finally break the “build-up then burn-out” cycle of soil management? The Ontario Soil Network thinks the answer may be yes

Reading Time: 6 minutes Don Lobb takes a very dim view of how mankind has treated soil over the millennia, but he is slightly more hopeful for this generation, due both to our constantly growing body of knowledge about soils, and to farmers who are not only willing to experiment with better ways to take care of the soil, […] Read more

Photo: Scott Garvey

Seven new product reveals from John Deere

In early June John Deere invited members of the farm media to its Harvester Works facility in Moline, Illinois, to see the full line of equipment it was introducing in 2017. And all of it was parked on the lawn in front of that combine manufacturing facility for reporters to photograph and learn about from[...]
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K-Line manufacturing of Australia is making its first foray into the North American market with its Speedtiller disc.

A new machinery brand for Canada

Australian manufacturer K-Line makes a big jump into the North American market

Reading Time: 3 minutes If you were a farm equipment manufacturer in a country that is its own continent, where would you look to make your first expansion into the international market? For the Australian company K-Line, the choice was easy. Head to North America. “It’s really one of the best moves we’ve made, as far as our company[...]
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Strips in corn stubble.

Is strip tillage a residue solution?

We don’t want to see a step backward in reduced-tillage practices. So how can canola growers improve seed survival and crop uniformity in challenging residue situations?

Reading Time: 5 minutes The fall objectives: Make sure the chopper can spread the width of the cut. Have a chaff spreader to avoid the thick harrow-immoveable mat of chaff right behind the combine. Cut higher so more of the residue is standing stubble. If necessary, harrow the crop on a hot windy day. This is the no-till approach[...]
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