Kazakhstan farmers reap benefits of conservation tillage

Farmers using zero till reported yields of two tons per hectare while some farmers 
using conventional practices lost their entire crop

Kazakhstan’s 2012 drought and high temperatures cut the country’s wheat harvests by more than half from 2011 output, but wheat under zero-tillage practices gave up to three times more grain than conventionally cultivated crops. Two million hectares are currently under zero tillage, making Kazakhstan one of the top 10 countries for conservation agriculture and helping

Horsemeat scandal buoys U.K. organic sales after 2012 dip

Consumers are turning to organic products as a guarantee of integrity after meat products were mislabelled

Reuters / Sales of organic products in Britain continued to decline last year in contrast to continental Europe but the horsemeat scandal has sparked a revival, the country’s main organic certification body, the Soil Association, said March 20. “In the worst economic downturn in living memory, it’s not surprising to find subdued sales of a


Prospect of a wet spring has some reconsidering their seeding plans

Farmers are starting to think about Plan Bs, but there is 
no sign yet of a major shift in seeding intentions

Wet conditions across the Prairies and the increasingly likelihood that planting will be delayed this spring have some farmers starting to think about “Plan Bs.” “I think what a lot of farmers are probably doing is looking at the Plan Bs because they’re thinking they might have to use them later on,” said Bruce Burnett,

Horsemeat scandal buoys U.K. organic sales

Reuters / Sales of organic products in Britain continued to decline last year in contrast to continental Europe but the horsemeat scandal has sparked a revival, the country’s main organic certification body, the Soil Association, said March 20. “In the worst economic downturn in living memory, it’s not surprising to find subdued sales of a


Producer touts benefits of grass-fed beef

Bragi Simundsson says raising beef on grass is just common sense; it’s the marketing that gets complicated. “Ruminant animals like cattle and sheep were built to eat grass,” reads the Arborg farmer’s web page at www.manitoba grassfedbeef.ca. “We think that animals should do the job they were built for. We believe that the protein portion

Researchers praise the many benefits of cover crops

University of Manitoba plant science researcher says farmers need to think more about what happens below a field’s surface and how they can improve soil health

It’s time for farmers to stop treating soil like dirt. “The role of a farmer is to manage a complex ecosystem to produce food, feed, fibre and fuel,” University of Manitoba plant science researcher Yvonne Lawley said at the recent Ecological and Organic Farming conference. “Millions of ‘moving parts’ need to work together, both above


Cows and crops: A perfect combination, experts say

Fifteen years ago, Marc Boulanger and his family took a closer look at what was happening on their operation near Grande Clairière, Man. — and didn’t like what they saw. “In the late 1980s, when grasshoppers were a major problem, we’d spray — then we were watching how the grasshoppers died, then the birds were

Organic tomatoes are more nutritious

Tomatoes grown on organic farms accumulate higher concentrations of sugars, vitamin C and compounds associated with oxidative stress compared to those grown on conventional farms, according to research published Feb. 20 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Maria Raquel Alcantara Miranda and colleagues from the Federal University of Ceara, Brazil. In their study, the