Don Flaten speaks about nitrogen during a recent field tour at the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment.  Photo: Shannon VanRaes

Too early to alter nitrogen guidelines

Solid manure applications may actually release more nitrogen over time, not less

The questions, how much nitrogen was applied and how much is available don’t have the same answer. Seven crops into a long-term study on nutrient management at the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment, researchers have found that current provincial guidelines for estimating nitrogen availability may not reflect reality when it comes using solid

Equipment is demonstrated in an alfalfa field near Friedensfeld, during Manitoba’s annual Hay and Silage Day.  
Photo: Shannon VanRaes

If you don’t test, you don’t know

Economic truths have forced some producers to cut back on nutrients for their forage, 
but a little phosphorus can go a long ways

Don’t forget about the phosphorus. Forage producers were reminded of the importance of the much maligned nutrient during the province’s annual Hay and Silage Day at the Friedensfeld Community Centre recently. “The perception out there is that we’re awash in phosphorus,” said John Heard of Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. “But the reality is


Winter rail traffic snarl jams U.S. Midwest ethanol plants

The coldest winter in three decades has stalled locomotives, frozen track switches and delayed crews

A winter-long traffic jam on U.S. railways is hampering transport of ethanol, forcing production cuts and ratcheting up prices in supply-deprived regions. The coldest winter in three decades has stalled locomotives, frozen track switches and delayed crews, causing snarls in Chicago and other major hubs across the continent and slowing much of the eastbound ethanol

U.S. proposes new safety rules for farm pesticide use

The U.S. EPA wants to better protect approximately two million farm workers from exposure to pesticides

Farm workers, children and other people working or living near farm fields would have more protection from hazardous pesticides under changes proposed on Feb. 20 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Today marks an important milestone for the farm workers who plant, tend and harvest the food that we put on our tables each day,”


Palmer amaranth

Glyphosate-resistant weeds a real and present danger

Canadian farmers are being warned to be careful not to lose their most precious weed-control resource

It’s like an episode of the old TV show “The Twilight Zone” — farmers repeatedly spray their crops but the weeds refuse to die. But that’s reality for many farmers in the mid-southern United States. Glyphosate, “the world’s greatest herbicide,” is no longer effective there due to an explosion of glyphosate-resistant weeds caused by a

New EPA biofuel targets dent corn’s demand prospects

At the very least, lower usage targets for both ethanol and other biofuels are 
expected to reduce interest in expanding production in the sector

Many corn traders tried to shrug off the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to trim the U.S. renewable fuels usage targets for 2014 and 2015, noting that U.S. ethanol production is driven more by operating margins than government-mandated blending requirements and is likely to remain high as long as ethanol makers can make profits. But



U.S. Cash Grains-Corn firm on river, soy mixed

Nov 19 (Reuters) - Corn spot basis bids were firm at U.S. Midwest river terminals early on Tuesday, bolstered by lower barge freight rates and a drop in futures to fresh three-year lows that made the grain more competitive in global export markets, dealers said. * Soybean bids also firmed along the Illinois River, while