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Tag Archives soil health

Close-up file photo of an alfalfa plant in a Canadian field. (Jennifer Seeman/iStock/Getty Images)
Crops, Forages

P.E.I. seed potato producers backed for ‘soil-building’

Province puts up $3 million for BMP program

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In an attempt to support its potato farmers following trade suspensions with the U.S. over potato wart, the government of Prince Edward Island plans to put up $3 million in new funding for a program that will help farmers shift to “soil-building crops.” “In our meetings with industry and the P.E.I. Potato Board, the need
Editorial, Op/Ed

Editorial: Gritty winds of change

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One of the downsides of spring, aside from its slowness to arrive, is the wind. Invariably before crops get established, we get a series of major wind events that cause soil to move, shearing off the newly emerging plants, and filling ditches with dirt, the air with fine particles and our teeth with grit. These
Dry cycles almost always mean more salinity issues for farmers.
Crops, Oilseeds

Soybeans early signal of soil issues

Most affected spots frequently in high-traffic areas in fields

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It was just over 10 years ago that Marla Riekman started getting the phone calls on a new soil issue. The provincial soil specialist with Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development suddenly started to hear from growers in the Red River Valley who were alarmed at the appearance of salinity in places they’d never seen it
Think of soil aggregates like the frame of a house, giving that building its shape and strength.
Crops, News

How to improve your soil architecture

Cover crops can help form better soil aggregates and soil structure

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A lot of architecture is about bearing weight and many of the buildings on your property do this with two basic shapes. The triangle, that you see in your rafters, or the arch, as in the double 2×4 header over your garage door, are important weight distributors. They allow you to have large amounts of
One way to increase soil organic carbon is to grow higher biomass crops in rotation or to grow cover crops.
News

More research on variable landscapes required: Lobb

While land varies widely across most farms, most research is done on uniform, relatively un-degraded plots

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The variation of farmland and the practices needed to restore it mean more research needs to be done on the landscape, not just in uniform plots, says one soil scientist. “Almost all of the scientific information on which we base our understanding has been generated on near-level, non-eroded landscapes,” said David Lobb. Lobb is a
Soil compaction can wring out your soil’s sponge ability.
Crops, News

Saving your soil sponge

It’s in the voids that your fields find their life

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“When it comes to soil, “… it’s all about the matrix.” Not the futuristic film, but the morphology. The soil structure. The ‘architecture.’ That’s according to soil scientist Francisco Arriaga from the University of Wisconsin, when talking about soil compaction at the recent 2022 Northern Soil Compaction Conference, hosted by the Minnesota Soil Health Coalition
Soil biology is garnering more attention as crop input costs rise.
News

Farmers test microbes to nourish crops as climate pressure grows, costs rise

Soil biologicals are getting a lot of attention — and research money — in the past couple of years

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Reuters – Tech companies are raising hundreds of millions of dollars, including backing from agriculture heavyweights like Bayer AG, in developing farm products that use living things like microbes and seaweed to nourish crops and lessen the need for synthetic fertilizer. Microbes, including fungi and viruses, have been available for decades as treatments to protect
“I would say that for this coming year we should have a special formulation of 4R and I’m calling it EC. It’s Extra Careful... ” – Don Flaten.
News

Soil fertility a high-stakes game

Playing the right cards at the right time is key in this cost environment

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Farming has its highs and lows and right now input prices are high while — despite our snowpack — soil moisture reserves are low. This puts farmers into a high-stakes poker game where there could be considerable rewards for proper fertilizing but there could also be a penalty for skimping and starving your crop. Retired
Laura Van Eerd shows the difference between corn grown on cover-cropped soil versus non-cover-cropped soil in this composite photo.
News

Long-term Ontario studies showing value of cover crops

Boosting organic matter in soils proved to boost profit margins and reduce yield variation year to year

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A series of long-term studies in southern Ontario are showing the value of cover crops and boosting soil organic matter. When combining data across experiments and research stations, University of Guelph soil scientist Laura Van Eerd said they consistently saw higher corn and soybean yields correlate to higher soil organic matter. Van Eerd spoke during a webinar hosted
Editorial, Op/Ed

Editor’s Take: Simple solutions

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The agriculture industry is — rightly — proud of its track record of adoption of cutting-edge technology and techniques. From GPS positioning and auto steer to data collection and prescription soil mapping, information is the lifeblood of the farm of today and tomorrow. Which is why it’s so perplexing that relatively few farmers avail themselves

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