Manitoba’s canola growers have elected a new president and set up a new executive position of past president.

Manitoba crop organizations name new brass

Groups announce new board members and executives for 2024-25

Manitoba’s crop organizations have come out of meeting season with a number of new leaders and directors. The Manitoba Canola Growers Association has elected Warren Ellis of Wawanesa as its president for 2024-25, with Jackie Dudgeon-MacDonald of Darlingford acclaimed as vice-president and Nicolea Dow of Portage la Prairie acclaimed as secretary and named treasurer. “The […] Read more

A centre-pivot system at work near Cowley, Alta., about 40 km east of Crowsnest Pass. Snowpack in mid-February was estimated at 50-75 per cent of normal at monitoring sites in southern Alberta's Rocky Mountains.

Managing irrigation with limited water

Some irrigation districts are advising users to brace for limits on available water

There is increasing concern with below-normal mountain snowpack and potential for limited irrigation water availability in 2024. Snowpack in mid-February was about 50 to 75 per cent of normal at most of the snow pillow monitoring sites in the Rocky Mountains of northern Montana and southern Alberta (visit the Alberta River Basins web page, then […] Read more


Photo: Union Forage/Facebook

U.S. seed giant acquires Calgary-based Union Forage

Will continue to operate under Union Forage name in 2024 but status beyond that uncertain

South Dakota-based Millborn Seeds announced today it had purchased Union Forage. In a news release, Millborn described Union Forage as a “forage seed innovator” that aligns with its “mission of enriching land and lives by delivering more than 1,200 species of seed solutions to farmers, ranchers and landowners across North America.”

aerial photo of irregularly shaped manitoba cropland

Bless your mess: Crops may not be best for underperforming acres

Taking poorer-producing ‘messy’ landscapes out of crops may improve fields’ economics and farms’ sustainability

UPDATED, March 7 — It might be difficult to consider “messy” fields as a pathway to improved crop production and profitability. But in the early going, a Prairie-wide university-developed research project suggests taking poor-producing acres out of annual crop production might be a means of improving overall efficiency, as well as the all-important bottom line. […] Read more


Drought has meant more demand for forage insurance, but accuracy of measurement based on local conditions is challenging.

Satellite-based insurance may be future of forage risk management

Analysis from above could be an accurate, timely way to measure forage growth

Glacier FarmMedia ­— Satellite-based insurance technology could be a way to protect beef producers during times of drought. There’s more interest in forage insurance during recent droughty times on the Prairies, but evaluating local forage risk is challenging. “Weather events are becoming more acute in severity and frequency, you know the drought of 2023, 2021,” […] Read more

Researchers now recommend allowing one or two years between terminating an old alfalfa stand and reseeding.

Alfalfa replant disease and related disorders

Whatever the cause, we can realize it's a problem and try to avoid it

Back in the 1980s I spent a lot of time on alfalfa diseases, particularly the verticillium wilt disease problem that was spreading across the Prairies, particularly in southern Alberta. In a few snow-free and cold Decembers in those years, a lot of damage was done to alfalfa, winterkilling entire fields of three-year-old stands. Even white […] Read more


photos: CNH

Compostable bale wrap heads toward wide release

Nature's Net Wrap an environment-friendly alternative to long-lived plastic

Virtually every cattle farmer and rancher has tripped over an old piece of plastic baler twine or net wrap stuck in the ground in a corral or bale yard. The stuff just never seems to go away. But an entrepreneurial Alberta ranching family has come up with a solution to eliminate that problem with a […] Read more

Tile drains are perforated plastic pipes installed below the crop rooting zone, used to reduce the depth of shallow water tables in imperfectly and poorly drained areas of a field. This pipe has a filter sock to prevent sediment from getting into the tile system.

Make it drain: Is tile right for your fields?

A producer and an agrologist consider whether tile is worth your while

Tile drainage may be the best tool in the toolbox to manage saline soil in fields, a southwestern Manitoba farmer told an audience at the recent Ag Days farm show. Aaron Hargreaves, who co-owns Harwest Farms south of Brandon, said he and his four partners have struggled with soil salinity on their farm since they […] Read more


CNH backs compostable bale wrap

CNH backs compostable bale wrap

An Alberta company developing what’s billed as the first viable bale net wrap to be made from compostable material has picked up funding from the maker of Case IH and New Holland equipment. CNH’s investment arm, CNH Ventures, announced a couple of weeks ago it would put up an undisclosed amount of cash to back […] Read more

The young Packard’s grasshopper is green with black scattered dots that resemble pepper. The adult version seen here is grey to dark yellow with two light-coloured stripes behind the eyes and grey forewings.

Grasshoppers: Brace for impact

The past year was bad for grasshoppers on the Prairies and 2024 could be worse, experts warn

It’s still the middle of winter, but it’s never too early to think about grasshoppers. That was one message delivered at last month’s Canola Week annual meetings in Calgary, which brought together canola industry leaders from across North America. Meghan Vankosky, a field crop entomologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada based in Saskatoon, spoke during […] Read more