Feeding yield, not disease

Feeding yield, not disease

Agronomist Peter Johnson explores what he calls the synergy between 
nitrogen and fungicide and what it means for yield

Agronomist Peter Johnson thinks fungicide and nitrogen are a match made in heaven and a late fungicide pass may help bolster yield in wheat. Johnson, of RealAgriculture, turned his talk to wheat yield during the recent BASF Knowledge Harvest event in Brandon. The cereal has become a gap filler in between crops like soybeans and

Manitoba has more crop choices than many locations on the Prairies, which makes a more diverse crop rotation possible.

Building a ‘better’ crop rotation

Understand all the interactions within a rotation and their effect on yield

Manitoba is a unique place to farm in the western Canadian Prairies. We enjoy a relatively long growing season, good rainfall (sometimes too much) and have the support of many industry partners, testing a wide range of crop types with adaptation to our climate. With all the crop options we have, a diverse crop rotation


A combination of snow covered in dirt is colloquially known as “snirt” and it’s a common sight around Manitoba this year, including here, east of Winkler.

Erosion lessons learned… and forgotten

The dust-covered snow of this winter suggests there’s a soil erosion 
problem brewing, MSSS speaker says

Disappearing shelterbelts and blackened fields have some wondering if the soil conservation lessons learned during the ‘Dirty ’30s’ dust bowl are being forgotten. “From the edge of Fargo to the edge of Winnipeg I did not see one flake of white snow on my way up yesterday (Jan. 31),” Daryl Ritchison, interim director of the

Just what does the term ‘soil health’ mean? A lot of different things, it turns out.

Ag Days speakers banter on soil health

Soil health is a hot topic, but there’s no clear definition of what it is and how to improve it

What’s soil health? Ask five people that question and you might get five different answers — even among Ag Days experts. Soil health and soil degradation are getting plenty of time in the headlines, with coverage of last year’s Summit of Canadian Soil Health in Guelph, soil tests looking beyond nutrients and into microbiology and

Opinion: Ongoing evolution necessary in farming

Not only are farmers being trusted to look after the land, crops and animals, we also want to do the best possible job ourselves. The problem is we don’t always have the clearest picture of what the best practices really are, and we of course operate within the confines of present technology and profitability. Take


Selling environmental benefits

New data management tools could help position Canadian agriculture 
as a sustainable supplier in the global marketplace

As momentum behind the tools and concepts of precision agriculture continues to grow, one of the most exciting — but least talked about — opportunities is their ability to improve farming’s environmental footprint. That’s a shame, because that’s one attribute of this latest revolution in agriculture that is most likely to resonate with an increasingly

Birch Hills, Sask., farmer Florian Hagmann’s canola average averaged 70 bushels on 5,000 acres in 2017. Speaking at Ag Days Tuesday Hagmann said the “little things matter” when fgoing for top yields.

How to grow 70 bushel canola

Manitoba Ag Days speaker has a tip for growers looking to get the most out of their canola yields.

It’s not the pots and pans that count in baking, it’s the ingredients, Birch Hills, Sask., farmer Florian Hagmann told the opening day of Ag Days here Tuesday. Last year on 5,000 acres Hagmann’s canola averaged 70 bushels an acre. When it comes to maximizing yields its the little things that count, Hagmann said. It

Dr. David Lobb puts a price tag on cumulative soil degradation in the kickoff event to the Riding Mountain Biosphere Reserve Soil Health
Committee.

Tillage questions posed for Manitoba

David Lobb with the University of Manitoba is researching the cost of soil degradation

What does soil degradation cost you? Dr. David Lobb hopes the answer to that question will get producers looking more closely at what’s happening under their feet. The University of Manitoba researcher spoke Nov. 15 in Dauphin at the “Soil Health and Your Bottom Line” workshop, hosted by the Riding Mountain Biosphere Reserve. Lobb estimates


Manitoba sees changing erosion landscape

Manitoba sees changing erosion landscape

Manitoba may not have a lot of topography but Dr. David Lobb says it’s enough for tillage erosion, especially as soybeans expand

As soybean acreage has exploded, new questions about soil erosion are arising. This past spring a record 2.3 million acres were planted and that has soil specialists expressing some concern about increased tillage practices and the soil impact of the new crop. “When you go to crops like soybeans, the ability of the soil to

Editorial: Rotation, rotation and rotation

In the early 1980s, the wheat board developed an idea called the Market Assurance Plan (MAP). That was back when there were perennial transport bottlenecks and the whole crop could sometimes not move by the end of the crop year. Even if it could move in total, it could be feast or famine for supply