Dr. Alison Nelson outlines her ongoing study on seed potato management and what it means for processing crops the next year during the 2018 Manitoba Potato Production Days in Brandon.

Warming seed potatoes had outsized effect on crop

Pre-seed storage may have more impact on processing crop than how the seed crop was managed in the field

The quality of a potato harvest might have more to do with how seeds were stored than how they were treated in the field the previous year. Alison Nelson, agronomist and researcher at Carberry’s Canada-Manitoba Crop Diversification Centre, says warming up seed before planting may have more impact on a processing crop than most in-season

Yvonne Lawley (l) presenting tillage research to growers at a field meeting last summer.

Soybeans raise tillage issues

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

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


CanoLAB and SoyLAB attendees get a crash course 
in weed identification in Dauphin March 15.

CanoLAB adds soybeans to the agenda

The two-day event hoped to get a better idea on managing canola 
and soybeans for growers who increasingly want to grow both

Growers were looking for more than just canola knowledge from CanoLAB this year. Soybeans also stole the show. Put on annually by canola commodity groups, CanoLAB is usually a major stop for everything from canola fertilization and weed control to disease pressures and beneficial insects. This was the first year, however, that the Manitoba Pulse

Agronomist Peter Johnson doesn’t like Manitoba’s tight rotations.

Tight crop rotations in the hot seat

Rotations were a major point as discussions turned to blackleg during this year’s BASF Knowledge Harvest

It’s all but impossible to eliminate sclerotinia and blackleg from the field, but it’s also a mistake to assume crop genetics alone will manage the problem. BASF technical service specialist Colleen Redlick said farmers need to broaden their approach during the BASF Knowledge Harvest in Brandon earlier this winter. Resistance breakdown, something the industry has


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

Other crops are seven per cent of the 2017 seeded acres.

Worth a look: Annual production estimates a valuable resource

It can help you calculate your own risk and rewards, but only if you use it

At first glance, the annual Guidelines for Estimating Crop Production Costs released every January looks like good bedtime reading for insomniacs. But sort through the numbers and analysis, and the story that emerges is full of mystery and intrigue. These production estimates are designed to give farmers a reference for determining which crops make the


VIDEO: Baker Colony brings home corn competition win once again

VIDEO: Baker Colony brings home corn competition win once again

Manitoba Corn Growers Association yield competition winner on familiar ground

Baker Colony near MacGregor, Man., won the Manitoba Corn Growers Association’s 2017 corn yield contest for the third year in a row breaking the record the colony set in 2016 with a yield of 306.4 bushels an acre. Manitoba Co-operator reporter Allan Dawson spoke with Mack Walder of Baker Colony on Feb. 14 at CropConnect.

Crop yield records broken across the board

Crop yield records broken across the board

The 2018 edition of Yield Manitoba with this week’s Co-operator has all the details

It’s official. Many Manitoba yield records were broken in 2017, despite a drier-than-normal growing season. That’s what crop insurance data collected by the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC) show. The information is in Yield Manitoba 2018, a supplement to this week’s Manitoba Co-operator. Of the 13 insured crops Yield Manitoba tracks for annual comparisons, eight


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

canola field

Speaker urges a change of pace when chasing maximum yield

Don’t think about what to add, Ag Days speaker says — think about what’s possible and subtract from there

Single changes won’t cut it if producers really want their best possible yield. Jarrett Chambers, president of ATP Nutrition, wants producers to be radical when it comes to testing management tools. “We have to figure out in a grower, what is their maximum yield for their farm and figure out, what is the potential? Where