Eight participants in the Manitoba Soil Science Society's drop-in tour Aug. 12 will be able to extract their own soil monolith for a $50 fee. Everyone must register to attend the tour and monolith extraction spots will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Soil society modifies its Aug. 12 summer tour

Bus tour replaced with self-guided tour that requires registration

The Manitoba Soil Science Society (MSSS) has replaced its annual summer bus tour with an event Aug. 12 at three sites in rural Manitoba participants get to themselves, MSSS president Megan Westphal said in a recent email. The sites are near Elm Creek (Red River Clay), Haywood (Almasippi) and Bruxelles (Dezwood). Participation is free, however,

Edward “Ted” Poyser, 90, now retired soils specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, can recall the work underway in the 1940s and onward, that went into the development of the Manitoba Soil Survey.

How Manitoba’s provincial soil was named

Ted Poyser, now retired soils specialist with the province vividly recalls the work that went into the Manitoba Soil Survey

Edward “Ted” Poyser doesn’t remember too much about the Manitoba village the provincial soil is named after. “Just that it wasn’t a very big place,” says long-retired provincial soil specialist now 90, who grew up on a farm at Austin, Man. Many decades have passed since he and his colleagues spent time there, digging and


"I think there has to be a whole new generation of tillage equipment developed in the next five years." – David Lobb.

High-disturbance seeding can be as erosive as a plow

Conservation tillage isn’t conserving as much soil as you thought. That’s why 
University of Manitoba soil scientist David Lobb says new tillage equipment is needed

The era of black summerfallow is over, and direct seeding and zero tillage have pretty much solved problems of soil erosion on the Prairies. Or so goes conventional wisdom. Not so, says David Lobb, a professor in the University of Manitoba’s department of soil science and senior research chair for the Watershed Systems Research Program

VIDEO: Tillage erosion and how you can avoid it

VIDEO: Tillage erosion and how you can avoid it

Soil science professor says it can be the most damaging type of soil erosion

You’ve heard of wind and water erosion, but how about tillage erosion? It’s often the worse of the three, says University of Manitoba soil science professor David Lobb, who spoke to Manitoba Co-operator reporter Allan Dawson Feb. 4 at the Manitoba Soil Science Society’s 59th annual meeting in Winnipeg.


Manitoba Soil Science Society member Marla Riekman carefully encases in resin the tiny layers of Newdale Clay Loam she and colleague 
John Heard scoop into metal findings to create a unique series of jewelry made with Manitoba’s provincial soil.

Handmade jewelry tells the story of Manitoba’s provincial soil

For the past five years members of Manitoba Soil Science Society have created the unique pendant/keychains, earrings, bracelets and rings with the distinct tricoloured soil of Newdale Clay Loam

Soil is sometimes called the earth’s skin. Why not wear a little of it next to our own and tell others about it? That was the idea that came to Manitoba agronomist and then Manitoba Soil Science Society (MSSS) president Kim Brown-Livingston around the time Manitoba declared its own provincial soil — Newdale Clay Loam

Women’s 2015 conference focus on healthy soil

The Winkler event was well attended November 15 to 17

“Don’t treat soil like dirt.” It is a living breathing organism and we must treat it well to sustain our future. That was the closing message at last week’s Manitoba Farm Women’s Conference delivered by Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (MAFRD) land management specialist Marla Riekman. This is the 29th year of a conference


people standing in a field

Roadside recognition for official provincial soil proposed

2015’s Year of the Soil a perfect time to get the idea off the ground, say Newdale residents

Five years after Manitoba officially proclaimed the Newdale Clay Loam its provincial soil, the tiny village bearing the same name wants to recognize it too. Local residents view International Year of the Soil as the perfect time to get their idea off the ground — so to speak. So last week — just in time

Woman presenting at a podium with microphone.

Struvite from manure safer in canola seed row

Manitoba Soil Science Society serves up a heaping helping of new research

There’s a whole lot of stinky goodness in hog manure, and researchers at the University of Manitoba have been working hard to make it more convenient for grain farmers to use. Experimental extraction of struvite, or magnesium ammonium phosphate — the same greyish-white crystallized minerals that kidney stones are made of — has shown promise as


researcher studying soil at a shale pit

National soil science meeting meets Manitoba mud

A look back in time on Manitoba's escarpment — and a vision of what the future could be

Dale and Caroline Steppler’s farm on the Manitoba Escarpment was shaped by glaciers, 
but today the challenge is keeping nutrients from running down to Lake Winnipeg

In an abandoned shale pit a busload of muddied-shoed soil scientists from across Canada and beyond peer back millions of years into the geological history of this part of the Manitoba Escarpment west of Miami. Marine dinosaur fossils are routinely discovered nearby in the bentonite clay formed from prehistoric volcanic ash. They once swam in

Perennial Crops Key To GHG-Neutral Crop Production

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is more than a public service – it can save farmers money, a soil scientist with the University of Manitoba says. Mario Tenuta says farmers don’t seem worried about the greenhouse gases (GHGs) they produce while growing food, despite the link with climate change. But farmers can benefit from reducing emissions