Yellow Pea Fava

Ring in the International Year of Pulses with this recipe

Prairie Palate: United Nations has declared this for 2016 — and with good reason

Take your pulse. Not that pulse. I’m talking lentils, chickpeas, beans, peas. The United Nations has declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses. That’s something we can celebrate here on the Canadian Prairies, where we grow more pulses than most places on earth. But we don’t eat them, not nearly enough. Almost all our pulse […] Read more

(Commercial Port of Vladivostok, vmtp.ru)

Baltic index slips to fresh low, demand concerns persist

Reuters — The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index, which tracks rates for ships carrying industrial commodities, slipped to another all-time low Tuesday on worries about vessel oversupply and slowing global demand. The overall index, which gauges the cost of shipping dry bulk including iron ore, cement, grain, coal and fertilizer, fell four points or […] Read more



(Dave Bedard photo)

CP cuts raise worry over potential slowdown

CNS Canada –– Canadian Pacific Railway’s decision to cut 1,000 jobs has caught the attention of two Prairie farm leaders. Norm Hall, president of Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, worries the move is short-sighted and may catch up with the railway in months and years to come, when commodity prices catch fire again. “You dump […] Read more


(Country Guide file photo)

Lower loonie helps farmers, but only so much

CNS Canada — The slumping price of oil continues to weigh on the Canadian dollar, while at the same time providing a boost to Canadian grain prices. Out-of-country buyers tend to more attracted to Canadian grain and wheat when the loonie is low, as they can get more product for their money. However, one market […] Read more

Manage root rot before seeding

Saskatchewan plant disease specialist recommends good agronomy to reduce root rot

Lentil and pea growers struggling with root rot need to manage the disease before the seed is in the ground, according to Saskatchewan Agriculture’s plant disease specialist. Fusarium, pythium, and rhizoctonia are root rot pathogens long familiar to farmers. But aphanomyces is a relatively new problem, only detected in Saskatchewan in 2012. “It probably was […] Read more





Farmers check out pea plots during the Western Applied Research Corporation’s annual field day at Scott, Sask. Weed control is a perennial problem for pea producers.

Managing Group-2 resistant weeds in pulse crops across Western Canada

Cleavers, mustard, kochia and sow thistle are among the weeds getting harder 
to control, but there are methods, starting with good agronomy

Group 2 resistance is something that is really a big problem across Western Canada,” says Dr. Chris Willenborg, a researcher at the University of Saskatchewan’s plant sciences department. Willenborg has worked on several research projects that inform weed resistance in pulses. The bad news is that resistance is spreading. And the more farmers rely solely […] Read more

Red lentils. (Pulse Canada photo)

India’s pulses under stress, need well-timed rain

CNS Canada –– India, the world’s largest producer of pulses, needs moisture before crops hit the reproductive cycle at the end of January, or existing losses will become amplified, a weather analyst says. The driest areas in India are important pulse-producing regions in northeastern Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, said Drew Lerner of World […] Read more