GFM Network News

More News →

Irrigation

Quebec OYF nominees Alison Blouin and Simon Plante among the strawberries on the Polyculture Plante farm.
Features, Fruit/Vegetables

Simon Plante and Alison Blouin

Outstanding Young Farmers 2024: Its acres capped by geography, this market garden operation seeks to grow more per acre

By
Increasing production on the same land base, which in turn will help make more marketing opportunities possible— that’s the goal of a young Quebec farming couple heading up a second-generation fruit and vegetable operation near Quebec City. Investing heavily in new production technology on the family-owned Polyculture Plante, located at Sainte-Pétronille on Île d’Orléans, is […] Read more
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada requires that all ingredients, as well as the percentage of each, must be on the label of a product sold in Canada. Your job as the product user is to read that product label.
Columns, Practical Tips

Perceptions and misconceptions versus realities in agriculture

Practical Research: In the court of public opinion, the drama can fog the facts

By
Since my retirement from Alberta Agriculture in 2002 I’ve acted as a legal expert in a number of lawsuits. Often, when a farmer is sued by a lawyer on behalf of a client, the farmer will immediately seek his own lawyer or lawyers for advice. While the lawyer may be well apprised of provincial and […] Read more
A field of canola being grown for hybrid seed, with orange shelters for leafcutter bees in the background.
Canola, Features

Hybrid seed doesn’t just happen

Aside from initial research and development to create a variety, a lot of detail goes into the annual production of hybrid seed

By
With the cost of hybrid canola seed being the No. 1 expense in producing the oilseed crop, Prairie farmers can have confidence knowing each of the 4.25 million canola seeds in a 50-pound bag was produced with care and attention to quality control. That’s the commitment of long-time hybrid seed producers, HyTech Production Ltd., based […] Read more
irrigation nozzles
Equipment

VIDEO: Crops feeling the thirst for irrigation

By
Western Canada has been getting more attention when it comes to irrigation, particularly for crops such as potatoes, lentils and sugar beets, but that’s not all. “Pretty much everything in our area if you can put water on it,” says Rob Mraz, general manager with Delta Irrigation. In this video, Mraz talks about technology applications […] Read more
Les Henry. (University of Saskatchewan video screengrab)
Crops

Prairie soil scientist and author Les Henry, 83

Henry's outreach to farmers spanned more than half a century

By
Glacier FarmMedia — Saskatchewan soil scientist Les Henry, well known for his work on improving Prairie farmland and his outreach to Prairie farmers in the pages of Grainews, has died. Ending a long fight with congestive heart failure, Henry died Friday in Saskatoon at age 83, having continued to write until very shortly before his […] Read more
les henry
Crops, News

Soil scientist and Grainews columnist Les Henry, 1940-2024

Henry's outreach to farmers spanned more than half a century

By
Saskatchewan soil scientist Les Henry, well known for his work on improving Prairie farmland and his outreach to Prairie farmers in the pages of Grainews, has died. Ending a long fight with congestive heart failure, Henry died Friday in Saskatoon at age 83, having continued to write until very shortly before his passing. Born in […] Read more
Your fearless columnist tosses the cell for electrical conductivity (EC) measurement into the Montreal River at Saskatchewan Highway 2 in July 2005. Results are recorded in a notebook and all is carried in a briefcase. I have notebooks like that all the way back to 1982. At this location, water EC is 260 uS/cm. In the north, water is mostly low EC; the standard for comparison is the South Saskatchewan River system that runs through Saskatoon, with an EC of about 450 uS/cm at 25 C.
Columns

Water chemistry: a Coles Notes version

Soils & Crops: Conductivity and hardness of water samples show what you can use it for

By
First of all: readers who have Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water can check out pages 124-125 for a detailed discussion of water chemistry, complete with calculations. Water is considered to be the universal solvent because it is capable of dissolving more substances than any other liquid. Therefore, one of the first things we might […] Read more
Water lines are trenched in on the field to feed drip lines placed at the root level.
Features

Subsurface irrigation called way of the future

Early adopters in southern Alberta are using drip lines to run water directly to crop roots

By
Glacier FarmMedia — Subsurface drip irrigation is a relatively new system to the Prairies, but one of southern Alberta’s early adopters is confident it’s an effective way to grow crops with water efficiency rates second to none. Subsurface irrigation systems deliver water directly to roots using drip lines and is commonly designed to be spaced […] 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.
Columns, Crops, Weather

Managing irrigation with limited water

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

By
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
At Lethbridge just one year in the past 10 booked above-normal precipitation during its growing season.
Columns, Weather

A decade of dry

Let's review the variability of weather and soil moisture at Lethbridge

By
Weather is often the greatest factor that influences crop production across the Prairies — in particular, growing season precipitation and level of heat. The southern Prairies, particularly the regions of the Brown and Dark Brown soil zones, have the lowest growing-season precipitation, in the range of 150 to 200 mm (six to eight inches) and […] Read more

AgCanadaTV

AGCanadaTV: In case you missed it; your national ag news recap for Sept. 5, 2025

Sponsored By:
More Videos →

Cyber-Savvy Farmer

Glacier Farmmedia Podcast

Latest Market News

More Market News →