Manitoba Agriculture’s Marla Riekman digs into the soil strata below the Canada-Manitoba 
Crop Diversification Centre potato site near Carberry Aug. 14.

Tips for growing ’taters

Growing potatoes requires disturbing the soil, so how does that mesh with soil conservation efforts? According to provincial experts, it can

Soil advocates want potato growers to bump soil management up their priority list. Marla Riekman, soil management specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, pitched soil management principles to growers and agronomists at Carberry’s Canada-Manitoba Crop Diversification Centre potato tour Aug. 14. Erosion risk The root crop, by its nature, involves disturbing soil, something that soil health advocates

Clinic attendees get into the fine details of combines during a July 13 clinic in Neepawa.

Women take the wheel at combine clinic

Ag Women Manitoba wants to beat back the 
preconceptions over female farm equipment operators

Tiffany Dancho and Pam Bailey don’t think machinery should just be for men. Two of the lead voices behind Ag Women Manitoba, Dancho and Bailey set off for Neepawa and the group’s inaugural combine clinic July 13 in the hopes of getting women more comfortable in the cab. “I’ve been in equipment for 10-plus years,


Tillage erosion is gaining attention around the world as researchers get a better understanding of how tillage can move soil.

Get your topsoil moving

Landscape restoration can offer immediate yield boosts

If you farm in the Prairie pothole region, you’re dealing with some yield loss due to tillage erosion, says Marla Riekman, land management specialist for Manitoba Agriculture. The good news is there’s a relatively easy way to restore that lost yield potential: simply move the eroded topsoil back up the slope. Riekman was at this

Co-op “Disker,” the new tillage tool

Co-op “Disker,” the new tillage tool

Our History: July 1947

While in Winnipeg, farmers were invited to visit the Canadian Co-operative Implements factory to watch the manufacture of this disker advertised in our July 1, 1947 issue. Some effects of the Second World War were still evident — the federal government had increased the annual sugar ration from seven to eight pounds per person per


Kristen MacMillan, the University of Manitoba’s faculty of agricultural and food sciences’ agronomist in residence, talks to students in the field 
about how a soybean plot trial is developing.

Putting class theory into soybean field practice

The University of Manitoba has introduced a new hands-on field course designed to introduce research principles to help second-year diploma students apply learning from their first year of study

Students studying agriculture at University of Manitoba took their studies outside this summer as participants in a first-ever course being offered those in their second year of the agriculture diploma program. The field class is instructed by pulse crops expert and U of M’s faculty of agricultural and food sciences’ agronomist in residence Kristen MacMillan,

MPSG production specialist Laryssa Stevenson talks about the benefits and risks to a rescue nitrogen application in soybeans during the Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers SMART Day event in Melita July 17.

Poor nitrogen uptake has soybean growers pondering rescue application

Lack of moisture has also meant lack of nodules and poor nitrogen fixation for some soybean fields, leading some to consider a mid-season fertilizer pass

More soybean fields are trying to shake off the impact of a dry spring on nitrogen uptake this year. Laryssa Stevenson, western production specialist with the Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers, told a SMART field day here last week that she has heard of more growers struggling with nitrogen deficiency this summer, which she blames


Attendees to the MPSG SMART Day take a look at a shallow-seeded soybean, compared to the swollen hypocotyls of one planted too deep and in compacted soil.

How deep is too deep when chasing moisture for soybeans?

A University of Manitoba researcher thinks there should be more attention paid to soybean seeding depth

Soybean growers may have been tempted to dig deep for seeding this year, but University of Manitoba researcher Kristen MacMillan says the data may not back up that practice. The Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers puts ideal seed depth between three-quarters of an inch and an inch and a half below the soil surface. Dry

Soybeans have long been rolled in Manitoba, but researchers are starting to question if it should be a blanket recommendation.

Are you rolling soybeans for the sake of rolling?

Rolling soybeans has some benefits, but also a downside

To roll or not to roll? For soybean growers, ‘tis the question. It’s become the standard strategy to keep dirt and rocks out of the combine come harvest, but Manitoba Agriculture says it may be time to take a second look at the practice. “We want to reduce earth tag,” Terry Buss, pulse specialist with


Young men for management… girls for typing?

Young men for management… girls for typing?

Our History: May 1961

In the “Some things have improved” department, these two ads (shown above and below) appeared adjacent to each other in our May 25, 1961 issue. “Young men” were invited to apply for management, accounting and marketing at the University of Manitoba, and “girls” for typewriting, shorthand and bookkeeping at Manitoba Commercial College. In the “Some

Close up Macro of Deer Tick Crawling on Straw

Tick season now underway

Provincial health officials say a daily check is critical for farmers, since they’re in easy reach of ticks

Ticks may be unavoidable in farming, but Dr. Richard Rusk, provincial medical officer of health, says getting bitten isn’t. The bloodsucking pests are starting to emerge now that the snow is gone and the province is ramping up its annual public education efforts. The blacklegged tick has once again captured most attention, overshadowing the American