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A certified crop adviser says Canadian farmers are losing close to $3 billion a year due to lost productivity caused by degraded, unhealthy soil.
Crops, News

Tending to your farm’s factory floor: its soil

The health of your farmland can have a big impact on your bottom line

By
In any manufacturing business productivity is a matter of managing the building, the machinery and the workforce to put the product together in a cost-effective way. In farming, soil is the factory floor and growing a profitable crop is a matter of managing the biology and chemistry of the field within the limits imposed by
Many people with livestock are searching for grazing land and a growing number of farmers are thinking about integrating livestock into their farms.
News

MOA soil health project to match livestock producers, landowners

Livestock integration, reduced tillage, perennials and cover crops to get a boost on organic farms with Conservation Trust funding

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A website that will pair landowners with livestock producers in search of grazing land, and a cost-shared consultant agronomy program are two projects the Manitoba Organic Alliance (MOA) is taking on in a project called “Improving soil stewardship on Manitoba organic farms” funded by the Conservation Trust. “Organic farms are really well positioned to be
Palmer Amaranth.
Crops, News

These non-native weeds are big problems in Manitoba

Keep an eye out for these noxious weeds in the coming growing season

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The Province of Manitoba has declared the last full week of April as Invasive Species Awareness Week. The Manitoba Weed Supervisors Association (MWSA) recognizes this week by highlighting just a few of the invasive plants considered to be a significant threat to the landscape of our province. Many of these invasive species are mistaken for
Fire, flood and drought have all been part of the Australian agriculture experience in the past year, causing a rising recognition of the perils of global warming.
News

Aussie farmers cutting carbon to stay competitive

Two growers presenting to an international conference say this is a response to growing demand in premium markets

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While many Canadian farmers say policies to reduce carbon emissions will make them uncompetitive, Aussie producers are setting ambitious climate mitigation goals to meet international customers’ growing demand for sustainable food. “The (Australian) agriculture industry has really led this and has been pushing for these sorts of policy changes… ” Richard Heath, executive director of
ABOVE: Little snow remains on fields near Brandon in mid-March.
Crops, Farmit Manitoba

Manitoba farmers confronted with a dry spring

Much of agro-Manitoba is sitting at 30 per cent or less of normal precipitation since November, and that’s not counting the dry fall beforehand

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Agro-meteorologists have good news and bad news. The good news is: chances are you’re getting onto your field early this spring — in fact, the first reports of field work in central Manitoba have already started trickling in over social media. The bad news is: those worries you had about a dry spring are coming
Take a systematic approach to improving the ecosystems beneath your feet.
Crops, Farmit Manitoba

There’s a teeming world of diversity and complexity in your field’s soil

This soil ecologist says six principles can be applied to improve soil health

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Soil is more than just dirt, a place where plants put down roots to grow seeds. It’s a complex ecology, teeming with infinite varieties of flora, fauna, microbes and minerals that provide both the raw materials and machinery to build crops and livestock. It’s a factory floor with a lot of moving parts and we’re
... the health of one soil can be very different from the health of another and both are healthy.” – David Lobb, University of Manitoba.
Crops, Farmit Manitoba

Soil health a moving target

There’s no one-size-fits-all measure of soil health, David Lobb says

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Saying a soil is ‘healthy’ isn’t something simple like running through a checklist. David Lobb, a soil scientist at the University of Manitoba says it’s a moving target that takes many variables into account. There are hundreds of different soils across the province, thousands across the country and the development of each one moves toward
Paying farmers to store carbon in their soils is, at least in theory, a win-win scenario.
Editorial, Op/Ed

Editorial: The carbon credit reality

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Canadian farmers, industry and governments should pay close heed to the recent announcement that one of Canada’s largest food processors has inked a deal to buy carbon credits from American farmers. Maple Leaf Foods will pay $20 per tonne to U.S.-based Indigo Ag for carbon stored on American farms applying soil-building practices. It represents a
John Deere says its new line of heavy harrows features a quick folding and unfolding sequence to help farmers move more quickly between fields. (Deere.com)
Crops

Degelman to make heavy harrows for Deere

Regina company reaches OEM agreement for new line

By ,
Major U.S. farm equipment manufacturer John Deere Co. has launched a new line of heavy harrows — and is going to Saskatchewan to get them. Regina equipment maker Degelman Industries announced Tuesday it has reached an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) agreement to provide Deere with a line of three heavy harrow models, the HH50, HH70
The European honeybee, vital to pollination and the honey industry but not suitable for all crops such as seed alfalfa or some fruit or greenhouse crops.
Farmit Manitoba

A multitude of bees are your tireless workers

You might be surprised to find out just how much extra canola a few more pollinators can bring to your bins

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Canola growers like what happens when they enlist hives of honeybees to help tend their crops. According to figures presented to the Manitoba Agronomist Conference earlier this winter by Melanie Dubois of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, pollination increases production by as much as 46 per cent. And the quality of the seed set is significantly

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