Reading Time: 6 minutes It’s a good run with the tractor this time. The driver has no trouble piloting a straight line across the field, the machine is humming happily, and the display monitor confirms that all is well. The discs are cutting nicely through the field trash too, and the seed is getting dropped right on target. Then […] Read more
Tractor simulator bridges the gap between operator and computer
Simulators are helping engineers finally figure out how best to get your brain and the tractor’s brain working together
Your soil needs crop diversity
Stacked rotations may be worth more research, but until then, diversity is your best profit management tool
Reading Time: 4 minutes Healthy soil is the craziest, busiest jungle you can imagine. One gram of clubroot-infested soil can have a billion clubroot spores. A billion! All in a pinch of soil the size of a Skittle! Fusariums, pythiums, rhizoctonia and countless other beneficial fungi, bacteria and microbes are there, too. So are ions and molecules of calcium, […] Read more
Fungicide resistance creeping up in crops
Fortunately, we already have many of the tools we need to delay or stop resistance in its tracks
Reading Time: 5 minutes We hear a lot about herbicide-resistant weeds these days. Repeated use of herbicides, especially ones from the same group and with similar modes of action, promotes the growth of weed populations that the chemicals can no longer control. A prime example is the emergence of weeds resistant to glyphosate, the most widely used weed control […] Read more
The threat for canola
Two canola diseases have got researchers worried
Reading Time: 4 minutes Protecting any crop from plant diseases that lurk in the soil or in the stubble is a never ending battle for farmers and researchers. Often, however, it’s even worse in canola, as becomes clear with a quick look at clubroot and blackleg. Both attack canola and while scientists and farmers are doing their best to […] Read more
Finding the right agricultural niche
Is niche diversification really the right strategy for your farm? Your best answer may come from answering this: ‘How driven are you?’
Reading Time: 5 minutes The reasons for wanting to diversify the farming operation are almost as diverse as the opportunities themselves. On many farms, it’s because expansion is so costly at today’s land prices, so the only way to grow is to intensify. Or it may be because there are more generations needing to draw income from the operation. […] Read more
Moving grain to market
Truckers and farmers are still figuring each other out following a massive move to hired transport
Reading Time: 6 minutes The 2014 crop is in the bin, and farmers now face their two perennial post-harvest challenges. They must market their grains and oilseeds amid a challenging world scene, and they must move those harvests efficiently off the farm. Over the past 20 years, the way they’ve done that second job has changed dramatically. Back when […] Read more
1.6 million acres of Prairie soybeans
Manitoba’s soybean acres have exploded in 2014, and Saskatchewan farmers are close behind
Reading Time: 6 minutes You can’t accuse Ernie Sirski of doing things by halves. In fact, he does them by twos, at least when it comes to soybeans. In 2012, Sirski planted 200 acres of soybeans for the first time on his farm near Dauphin, Man. The next year, he doubled that to 400 acres, averaging an impressive 40 […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
