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Features, Practical Tips

Six tips for hiring and keeping your farm employees

Farm Management: Thinking of hiring more staff to make sure next season runs more smoothly? Try these hiring tips

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One of the advantages of family farming (and family-owned businesses in general) is working with people who naturally love and trust each other. While there are common frictions and unique difficulties in working with family, it is usually more fulfilling than working with the relative strangers. Unfortunately, as farms get larger and tasks get more […] Read more
Features, Practical Tips

Proper planter maintenance for yield increases

Winter is a good time for planter inspections and maintenance, even if your planter is new this year

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Next year’s corn yields may be the last thing growers want to think about at this time of year, but as the snow begins to fall, it’s the perfect time to make sure you’re getting everything you can from your corn planter come spring. A properly calibrated planter could make a huge difference to your […] Read more
Practical Tips

Do your own germination tests

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January is a good time to test your bin-run seed for germination, says Ieuan Evans, senior Agri-Coach with Agri-Trend Agrology. “Some cereals and other crops have delayed germination,” he says. “They will not germinate unless they have been stored for a few months.” When you buy certified seed, you have a guarantee of germination. With […] Read more
Practical Tips

Use fall window to prep for pulses

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Prairie farmers have about a six-week window between early September and mid-October to address two important weed control opportunities, says Neil Harker, an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada weed scientist based at Lacombe, Alta. With more producers growing Roundup Ready crop varieties, there hasn’t been as much interest in recent years in pre-harvest weed control treatments, […] Read more
Practical Tips

Whack weeds when they are green and growing

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You have two opportunities to apply a fall burndown herbicide: pre-harvest and post-harvest. A pre-harvest application is more often used as a harvest aid. A glyphosate treatment in early September can help dry down green annual weeds that can affect harvest operations, says Bill Hamman, a senior agri-coach with the Agri-Trend Agrology network, based in […] Read more
Practical Tips

How to mix herbicides and fungicides

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Follow label recommendations, do your own “jar test,” apply products at your own risk, and call the chemical companies for any advice they might have. Those are about the four main pieces of advice for farmers thinking about tank mixing herbicides and fungicides for a one pass application this year. Not a lot of research […] Read more
Practical Tips

Think long-term with blackleg management

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Current blackleg infection rates will not have most canola growers shaking in their boots. While blackleg was found in 65 per cent of Manitoba canola fields last year, average incidence within those fields was relatively low at 7.1 per cent of plants infected (Debbie McLaren, AAFC Brandon). That’s up only slightly from 61 per cent […] Read more
Practical Tips

Tips to apply Headline on peas

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Headline is registered on a long list of crops in Canada, including corn, cereals, potatoes and pulses. But BASF especially likes to talk about Headline’s performance on peas. The company claims an 11 per cent yield benefit for peas treated with Headline. If you are inclined to try the fungicide on your peas, here are […] Read more
Practical Tips

7 tips for midge control

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Owen Olfert, entomologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Saskatoon, says the midge risk is elevated for much of Saskatchewan and into Alberta. “Conditions for ovipositioning — egg laying — have been ideal for the past two years,” he says. On top of that, parasitism by midge enemy No. 1 — our friend the mini […] Read more
Practical Tips

Higher crop prices mean lower insect thresholds

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With higher grain prices it takes fewer insects and lower levels of feeding to trigger an economic pay-off for spraying. Generally these economic thresholds are lower today than they were just a couple years ago, says Scott Hartley, insect management specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture in Regina. He points to lygus bug as an example. Existing […] Read more

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