Shotgun Silage, Grazing Mixes Tested

“The quality that brings to your soil is huge. You get better water infiltration, water and nutrient holding capacity, tilth, aggregation, and all sorts of good things.” – SUSAN AINSWORTH, MAFRI On Bernie Dueck’s farm near Sidney, the crop is coming up gangbusters. That’s right, in five-acre strips, there’s a whole whack of plants emerging,

Cover Crop Program Considered

Compensat ion for crops damaged or destroyed by recent heavy rains across Manitoba will come from crop insurance and AgriStability, but Agriculture Minister Stan Struthers hasn’t ruled out a conservation cover program. Struthers is also committed to improving drainage. “Our government has been increasing the amounts that have been going into maintenance of drains…,” Struthers


Midwife Crop Could Help Green Shoots Break Through

Aunique trial at the Brandon AAFC research farm will see if planting seed of other crops in the furrow along with canola can help the notoriously weak seedlings break through the soil crust and improve establishment rates. Research scientist Byron Irvine said that companion crops such as canary seed, flax, camelina, and golden German millet

Dark French Fries And Salinity Go Hand In Hand

“It dictates that you just can’t grow potatoes in those soils.” – BLAIR GEISEL, GAIA CONSULTING You know there’s something wrong with a potato if the tip of a french fry turns dark when it hits the oil. It’s a phenomenon potato processors hate: a disorder called “sugar-end defect.” The sugar caramelizes, leaving the tip


Israel To Help African Farmers Fight Desert

Having “conquered the desert” at home, Israel is ready to share technology and skills with African countries struggling to sustain agricultural output due to increasingly unreliable rains, an Israeli minister said. Shalom Simhon, Israel’s minister of agriculture and rural development, said sharing know-how, especially in irrigation and water management, was his focus on a tour

BMP Program Approves 180 Projects

The Manitoba Sustainable Agriculture Practices Program (MSAPP) has completed its first intake of applications for beneficial management practice (BMP) incentive funding for the 2010-11 fiscal year, Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives Minister Stan Struthers has announced. “The MSAPP is a incentive-based program announced by the province in 2008 to encourage producers to adopt and implement


Soil Quality Is On The Public Radar

“National Soil Conservation Week allows us to celebrate this success and keep soils in the public eye.” – GLEN SHAW Farm soils are moving up the radar of public interest. Long the forgotten child of the environmental movement, there is growing evidence that soils are becoming of greater interest to the general public and the

Best Of Both Worlds

“Often row crops that we grow just suffer too much growth and yield depression when they are seeded in zero-till conditions.” – JOHN HEARD It’s hard to beat warm, black soil for spring seeding. But under the zero-tillage doctrine, which places great importance on the moisture retention and soil preservation advantages of retained trash cover,


No Till No Silver Bullet For Lake Winnipeg Phosphorus Loading

It has long been a commonly held belief that zero tillage is a good way to keep phosphorus out of watersheds. But the latest research at South Tobacco Creek, near Miami, shows that the soil conservation practice aimed at covering up bare dirt with crop residue may be leading to more of the nutrient leaking

Strip Tillage Touted As Beneficial For Row Crops

“To me, it’s a real nice compromise.” – GREG ENDRES, NDSU Row crop farmers who want to switch from conventional tillage but not to zero till may find a middle ground with strip tillage. Strip tillage is a system which allows growers to seed directly into a prepared seedbed while still retaining crop residue on