Reading Time: 2 minutes Storm damage to crops can result in problems with nitrate accumulations, especially if the crops were heavily fertilized or manured in the spring to optimize yield. “With volatile weather comes storm damage and, for some producers, this means salvaging crops for feed,” says Andrea Hanson, beef extension specialist, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, Airdrie. Hanson cautions […] Read more
Salvaging hail-damaged crops
Weather — it’s all in the cloud(s)
A look at the various cloud types and how they got their names
Reading Time: 4 minutes I’m currently off exploring the mountains of southeastern B.C. and southwestern Alberta and due to my travels, will have go with a more generic weather article this issue. I decided to take a look at something that ties into pretty much all of our weather — clouds. If we were to define a cloud, we […] Read more
He knows the weather
Meet Larry Romaniuk, long-range weather specialist at Country Guide
Reading Time: 3 minutes When you spend 60 years doing something, you get pretty good at it, and Larry Romaniuk is very good at forecasting the weather at least 75 per cent to 80 per cent of the time. Romaniuk prepares the long-range weather forecast for Country Guide, and he’s been doing it for 23 years since retiring from […] Read more
Weather derivatives to mitigate weather risk to crops
These new risk-management contracts are finally getting easier to price and evaluate
Reading Time: 5 minutes Agriculture may be the most weather-impacted industry on the planet — by far — but it isn’t the only industry that’s affected by the vagaries of temperature and rain. It’s estimated that a third of the United States’ GDP and 70 per cent of firms in the United Kingdom are also exposed to weather risk. […] Read more
Marketing crops in weather extremes
Other farmers use marketing to cut the weather’s impact on their farms. These farmers build on it
Reading Time: 8 minutes Across Canada, the late-summer reports were a wild mixture of good, bad and ugly. Crops seemed stellar in southeastern Manitoba, yet in parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan, late rains couldn’t undo earlier drought damage, while in Ontario, the outlook swung from excellent to poor based on late frosts and excess rain. In that context, Country […] Read more
Three-hour tornado & Regina’s wettest day ever
Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — A tornado spun for several hours through southwestern Manitoba late Monday in a fierce Canadian Prairie storm that caused flash flooding and shredded part of a highway. No injuries or major damage was reported, according to a statement by Environment Canada, federal weather forecaster. “What was just shocking was the duration on the […] Read more
Canada meets climate change
It’s time to stop unscientific denials, and to get on with the job of preparing our farms for the real changes that are coming
Reading Time: 6 minutes How will climate change affect Prairie agriculture in the future? This was the question the Alberta Institute of Agrologists presented to a trio of University of Manitoba (U of M) researchers last year, including Brian Amiro, a soil scientist specializing in agricultural meteorology and climatology; Christine Rawluk, research development co-ordinator with the National Centre for […] Read more
U.S. weather forecaster slightly reduces El Nino outlook
Reading Time: < 1 minute New York / Reuters – The U.S. weather forecaster on Thursday projected a 58 percent chance of El Nino developing during the Northern Hemisphere winter, reducing its outlook for the likelihood of the weather phenomenon in its monthly report.The Climate Prediction Center, an agency of the National Weather Service, said the most recent atmosphere and ocean […] 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
