The University of Manitoba’s Martin Entz, an agriculture professor and cropping systems specialist, suspects reduced tillage and organic production may not be mutually exclusive.

Can organic no till work in the field?

Environmental benefit is part of organic market value, but organic weed management usually means tillage, commonly considered a black mark for soil health. Is there a middle ground?

Hairy vetch may be the key to reducing tillage in organic farming, at least in the short term. Martin Entz, a professor and agriculture systems expert from the University of Manitoba has been looking at mulches for organic weed suppression, rather than the tillage typically used. “We found that when we used the right mulch,

Manitoba farmers with crop still in the field have now experienced both ends of the moisture spectrum in a single season.

Formerly parched grain now fighting moisture after September rains

2017 will be remembered as a dry year, but the latest harvest is still fighting high moisture 
after a series of rains in September

Manitoba’s early harvest was dry, but now a rash of rains has left producers fighting moisture and wondering when to give up on drying in the field. Francois Labelle, general manager for the Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers, said most grain being harvested is several percentage points above safe storage since the dry spell broke.


Fertilizer Urea Prills

Broadcasting nitrogen in fall least efficient approach

It’s also the least environmentally friendly

Broadcasting in fall is the quickest and easiest way to apply nitrogen — and the least efficient. So why, anecdotally at least, does the practice seem to be on the increase? Bigger farms and a shortage of labour could be part of it. Moreover, nobody knows when poor weather will shut down field operations. And

Vurayayi Pugeni, who works with the Mennonite Central Committee out of Winnipeg and Score Against Poverty, a Zimbabwean NGO, says a project designed by the University of Manitoba’s Martin Entz and his colleagues has brought food security to his Zimbabwean village through innovations such as intercropping 
with legumes.

Manitoba project aids Zimbabwean food security

Hemp Genetics International thinks Canadian and Zimbabwean farmers can learn from each other

If you had four children, but only enough food to feed one, how would you choose? It’s a choice Vurayayi Pugeni’s mother had to make when he was growing up in Zimbabwe. Fortunately it’s not one mothers today in Pugeni’s village have to make because they enjoy food security, thanks in part to a research


Will Jermey (r) displays his senior champion female with bull calf at the Canadian Junior Angus Association Showdown in Lloydminster, Sask. His herd is largely drawn from former 4-H projects.

4-H beef program aims at breeding over butchering

A small number of 4-H’ers in the Interlake are turning their heifer projects into purebred herds

It’s all about the ladies at Ashern’s Lakeside 4-H Beef Club. Unlike other clubs, and their focus on finishing cattle for market, this group is concentrating on breeding heifers, and senior members are aging out with a purebred herd already in hand as a result. Steers, ordinarily a 4-H staple, are in the minority, making

"The main factor in residual nitrogen is always crop uptake, so when we have high yields of cereals and canola, as many have, the soil’s N is generally depleted." – John Heard.

Getting a jump on fall fertilizer

Recent rain may alter farmers’ plans, just like a dry year to date has

Recent rains in Manitoba will be welcomed by agronomists taking soil samples and farmers looking to do fall tillage work and fertilizing, according to one provincial soil specialist. John Heard, of Manitoba Agriculture, says fall soil tests remain the gold standard, in determining fertilizer needs for the crop. Agronomists often like to get a jump


Members of Hog Watch Manitoba hold a press conference in Winnipeg.

Hog production faces opposing ideologies

Hog Watch holds events opposing legislative changes, Manitoba Pork responds

Manitoba’s pork industry found itself treading on hostile ground at the University of Winnipeg on Sept. 21. Manitoba Pork Council chairman George Matheson stood up at a Hog Watch Manitoba event last week to refute some of the claims made by the activist group, including assertions that hog production is inhumane and poorly regulated. “Gestation

New grain type yields high in farm field test

New grain type yields high in farm field test

Our History: September 1961

Our Sept. 7, 1961 issue reported on “high productivity and drought resistance” on a new “synthetic grain species” developed at the University of Manitoba. The cross between durum wheat and rye, later named triticale, had been grown on 35 acres on the farm of A.V. Arnott at Darlingford, and it was estimated it would yield


Bob McIntosh, who farms in Perth County, says it can take a lifetime or longer to repair degraded soils.

Degraded soils cost farmers billions annually

Yet soil care remains a low priority for policy-makers as well as farmers

Farmers have reduced the amount of soil they lose through annual cropping practices, but they continue to carry a costly legacy of degraded soils, a University of Manitoba soil scientist says. David Lobb used crop production data and computer models to estimate how much lost productivity has occurred over the past four decades due to

Dr. Rob Duncan (l) is the first Canadian to be given the Early Career Scientist Award from the National Association of Plant Breeders.

U of M plant breeder earns international accolades

The University of Manitoba’s Rob Duncan is a rising star in the world of plant breeding 
and just earned a prestigious U.S. award

A Manitoban is the first Canadian to earn a major international plant-breeding award. Rob Duncan, a brassica breeder with the University of Manitoba, has been named winner of the National Association of Plant Breeders (NAPB) Early Career Scientist Award. Duncan, who grew up in rural Manitoba, was given the award in early August during the