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Field day attendees get a look at the pivot-mounted radiometers, one of AAFC’s efforts to nail down variable-rate irrigation and mapping at Carberry’s CMCDC this year.
Crops, News

Potato researchers delve into variable-rate irrigation

Potato producers are hearing more about variable-rate technology, but researchers at Carberry are trying to dig up some concrete numbers on the technology

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If there’s a perfect recipe for success when it comes to variable-rate irrigation in potatoes, the researchers at the Canada-Manitoba Crop Diversification Centre (CMCDC) are still trying to find it. The idea of variable-rate irrigation is hardly new. As early as 2012, news of field trials was coming out of Alberta, although one of the
Even less competitive crops can benefit from an integrated weed management strategy.
Crops, Other

Crop establishment important for weed management

Combining many tools into an overall integrated weed management strategy is a winner

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There are many components to integrated weed management (IWM) including crop rotation, seeding rates, chemical, cultural and mechanical controls, but one of the most vital aspects of any successful IWM is crop establishment, says Dr. Rob Gulden of the University of Manitoba. At this year’s Crops-A-Palooza event in Portage la Prairie, researchers including Gulden manned
Installation of a water control box.
Did you know?, News

Box it up

Researchers say ‘control boxes’ could limit nitrate run-off 
from tile drains

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Tile drainage is a boon in a wet spring but it can also increase nitrate run-off into nearby waterways and eventually lakes and even the ocean. The answer, when the problem was first discovered in the 1980s, was to develop “edge of field” practices, keeping saturated strips of natural landscape near streams to remove nitrates,
Increasing resistance to chemicals including glyphosate complicates the problem of controlling kochia.
Crops

Kochia and salinity: a battle on two fronts

One strategy might be to treat saline patches like a lawn, and mow them before the kochia sets seed


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Producers may be looking for a way to beat back kochia, but what does that mean for the salinity problems lurking in the soil? Saline patches were common this year after a second season of below-average moisture. Read more: The year of the tumbleweed “The fluctuations in soil moisture are very linked to the soil
Crop residue burning down, but not out
Crops, Local news, Other

Crop residue burning down, but not out

Dry weather is one reason, but officials say 
there are other factors too

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Fall stubble burning in the Red River Valley used to be as common as spring seeding. But smoke wafting into Winnipeg became such a health hazard in the late 1980s and early 1990s the Manitoba government began regulating crop residue burning in 1992. Now burning permit requests from farmers in the 10 rural municipalities near
Manitoba Agriculture soil management specialist Marla Riekman wants farmers to consider “tillage rotation.”
Crops, Local news

Consider tillage rotation for improved soil management

High-speed, aggressive tillage can erode fields, especially in hilly terrain

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There’s crop rotation, herbicide rotation and now Marla Riekman is advocating for tillage rotation. “There is the idea of rotational tillage where you can use some of your tillage options and use them in the most appropriate spots in your crop rotation,” Manitoba Agriculture’s soil management specialist said in an interview Sept. 7. Riekman isn’t
Tillage erosion is gaining attention around the world as researchers get a better understanding of how tillage can move soil.
Crops

Get your topsoil moving

Landscape restoration can offer immediate yield boosts

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If you farm in the Prairie pothole region, you’re dealing with some yield loss due to tillage erosion, says Marla Riekman, land management specialist for Manitoba Agriculture. The good news is there’s a relatively easy way to restore that lost yield potential: simply move the eroded topsoil back up the slope. Riekman was at this
Dr. Bernie Zebarth of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada explores drone use during the 2018 Manitoba Potato Production Days in Brandon earlier this year.
Crops

Mapping a new frontier: Potatoes and precision agriculture

The root crop has a number of quirks that make it both a prime candidate for 
precision agriculture and a little different than other crops

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Potatoes may, in many ways, be the perfect candidate for precision agriculture. They’re a high-volume, high-value and high-input crop and the industry has already invested more than other sectors in soil and drainage mapping, variable rate technology and management zones, according to one agronomist who works closely with potato growers. Trevor Thornton’s Crop Care Consulting
Yvonne Lawley (l) presenting tillage research to growers at a field meeting last summer.
Crops, Oilseeds

Soybeans raise tillage issues

As the low-residue crop creeps into new areas, new techniques are needed

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Agriculture researcher Yvonne Lawley doesn’t want Manitoba farmers to rethink soybeans — she wants them to consider techniques to incorporate them into their production system more safely. The University of Manitoba professor says the crop’s earned a reputation as a soil buster, and at times that’s warranted. But they also bring a lot to the
Blain Hjertaas takes attendees through the carbon and hydrological cycle during a March 14 workshop on agriculture and climate change in Pipestone.
Crops, Local news

Confronting climate change through the power of plants

Carbon sequestration was front and centre as producers gathered in Pipestone to ponder how agriculture could change the conversation around climate change

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Blain Hjertaas insists farmers already have the key to solving climate change. It’s growing in their fields. Ground should never be bare, the holistic management instructor argued in Pipestone March 14, part of an event dissecting agriculture’s role in climate change. Hjertaas argued that conventional annual cropping leaves gaps in early spring and in fall

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