Cutaway of Plant and Roots in Dirt

Healthy soils mean a sustainable future

Causes, consequences of and solutions to soil erosion are always connected

Healthy societies and healthy economies are the product of healthy soil. Healthy soil produces abundant inexpensive food in a sustainable and reliable way. This requires soil care on the part of land managers and courage on the part of policy-makers who oversee soil protection. Scientists who understand soil formation tell us the only sustainable way

A pea/oat/tillage radish cover crop seeded in early August, pictured on October 17.

Cover crops breaking out of livestock niche

Benefits of cover crops shown to accrue to grain portion of mixed operations, causing some without livestock to consider them

Cover crops could be a game changer for Manitoba, and not just for mixed crop and livestock operations. Typically those farms have been the earliest adopters of this new technique, said Michael Thiele, who works with the province’s grazing clubs through a Ducks Unlimited program. “These guys growing cover crops are finding that using and


Most fields may have dried out from floods in 2010 and 2011, but there’s a lingering effect from compaction and poor aeration.

A wet cycle has caused some farmers to rethink zero till

Seeding & Tillage Focus: As the province’s wet cycle appears poised to break, soil compaction is a lingering after-effect

The past few years have been a bit hard on zero till in Manitoba. Faced with a flood followed by a long wet cycle, more and more farmers in the southwest part of the province were forced to do something they thought they’d left in the past — pull out their tillage implements. Their aim,

Eight tips for growing flax

Eight tips for growing flax

Agronomy researcher Chris Holzapfel shares what he’s learned about growing flax

If you count each research plot as a crop, Chris Holzapfel – a research manager for the Indian Head Agricultural Research Foundation – has grown more crops in a few years than most farmers have a chance to grow in a lifetime. Holzapfel’s research includes several different crops, but at a recent Saskatchewan Oilseed Producer


Pratisara Bajracharya, field crop pathologist with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development spoke on clubroot at the Dauphin Agriculture Society’s Farm Outlook 2016 held on March 10.

Careful management key to keeping clubroot level low in province

Experts call for soil testing, scouting and diligent rotations to keep clubroot at low levels

Manitoba canola growers aren’t facing the full mischievousness of clubroot — yet. The soil-borne disease is a major issue for farmers in other locales, where it limits cropping options, stunts plants and hampers yield. Provincial specialists say they hope it remains a mild problem here, and scouting and diligent crop rotation will be the key

Adjusting production to lower prices is a slow process in crop agriculture

Adjusting production to lower prices is a slow process in crop agriculture

Aggregate crop production tends to remain steady in the face of lower prices, 
essentially locking in low prices for long periods of time

There are several reasons why farmers do not respond in textbook fashion to a reduction in prices by making a proportional reduction in production. Farmers must begin planning for a given crop at least two years before the marketing year for that crop comes to a close. Most of these decisions have to be made


The take-home message for soybean growers and agronomists in Manitoba is not to overdo soybean management, says an Ontario soybean specialist.

Soybeans — the ‘kitchen sink’ strategy works, but…

Ontario trials suggest early seeding is the best and cheapest management practice

Intensive management can improve soybean yields, but growers should evaluate whether each strategy pencils out, says a soybean specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Speaking at the Manitoba Agronomists Conference (MAC) in Winnipeg in December, Horst Bohner described more than a decade of research to evaluate various management strategies to

Measuring seeding rate by the bushel can lead to wide variations in yield.

Determining the best seeding rate for hard red spring wheat

An NDSU researcher finds that different varieties also have different tillering capacities

The old rule of thumb about seeding 1.5 bushels of wheat per acre just doesn’t apply anymore, says a researcher with North Dakota State University. Variety, seeding date and even latitude make a difference, Grant Mehring told the Manitoba Agronomists Conference in Winnipeg last December. He described his extensive, three-year research trials on seeding rates


What is that critter, and is it a good one or a bad one? An app being developed by AAFC and the U of M will be able to tell you.

App will identify bugs and outbreaks in real time

Farmers and agronomists sought for testing app that will allow reporting and tracking of insect outbreaks

Researchers at the University of Manitoba and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada are developing a new app that will make it easier for farmers to practise integrated pest management (IPM). The free, user-friendly app, which should be available in 2018, incorporates three separate tools for pest identification, forecasting and crop management. The pest ID tool is

Rainbow over green wheat field

Survey to gauge changes in crop rotation

Data needed to measure climate benefit from changes farmers already made

Rather than wait for new rules on Canadian farms to cut greenhouse gas and carbon emissions, a crop researcher hopes to show how growers may have already helped to do so. Stuart Smyth, a professor in the University of Saskatchewan’s department of bioresources policy, business and economics, on Jan. 15 launched a national online farmer