Haying progress continues, crops at normal stage of development

Saskatchewan Crop Report for the week ending July 3, 2017

Haying is progressing in the province as livestock producers now have 19 per cent of the hay crop cut and 10 per cent baled or put into silage, according to Saskatchewan Agriculture’s weekly Crop Report. Hay quality is rated as eight per cent excellent, 54 per cent good, 29 per cent fair and nine per […] Read more


A screengrab from a promotional video for Bayer’s Proline fungicide. (Bayer CropScience Canada via YouTube)

Finer nozzle screens linked to Proline plug-ups

Bayer CropScience is recommending users of its Proline foliar fungicide double-check the nozzles they’re using before spraying, to avoid the “plugging issues” affecting some customers’ sprayers. The company on Wednesday reported a “small” number of cases in which farmers’ sprayers were plugging up during applications of Proline, a broad-spectrum prothioconazole (Group 3) suspension Bayer bills […] Read more

Crop conditions good to excellent, frost damage being assessed in south

Saskatchewan Crop Report for the week ending June 26, 2017

Despite the cool and dry conditions experienced so far, the majority of crops are in good to excellent condition, according to Saskatchewan Agriculture’s Weekly Crop Report. Sixty-five per cent of winter wheat, 54 per cent of fall rye, 70 per cent of spring wheat, 49 per cent of durum, 68 per cent of oats, 64 […] Read more


Seeding in Sask. 94 per cent complete, topsoil moisture falling in southern areas

Saskatchewan Crop Report for the week ending June 5, 2017

Seeding operations are almost complete as 94 per cent of the crop is now in the ground, according to Saskatchewan Agriculture’s weekly Crop Report. This is slightly ahead of the five-year (2012-2016) seeding average for this time of year of 93 per cent. While most producers in the province have wrapped up seeding, those in […] Read more

(Video screengrab from RB.com)

French’s owner kicks off food business sale process

London | Reuters — The sale of Reckitt Benckiser Group’s North American food business, which could fetch more than US$3 billion, has kicked off with information packages going out to industry players, according to sources familiar with the matter. The sale of the food business is aimed at helping the British consumer goods company pay […] Read more


Sask. farmers make good seeding progress, despite the weather

Saskatchewan Crop Report for the week ending May 15, 2017

Despite recent cool and wet weather, good seeding progress was made for much of the province this past week. Thirty per cent of the 2017 crop is now in the ground, according to Saskatchewan Agriculture’s weekly Crop Report. The five-year (2012-2016) seeding average for this time of year is 33 per cent. Seeding is most […] Read more

Barley at sunset

Where to find your provincial crop protection guides

Spring is in the air. That means its time to get your new provincial crop protection guide for all the latest information on registered herbicides, fungicides and insecticides. Here’s how: In Manitoba: For an online copy, Google “Manitoba” and “Guide to Crop Protection” and Google will direct you to a “Guides and Publications” page with many […] Read more


On the left is a root of a sugar beet grown in fine sandy loam soil, showing root stratification in the second and fourth foot of soil where layers of clay were encountered. From Weaver, 1926, Root Development of Field Crops. The wheat and wild mustard graphic on the right shows root competition between Marquis wheat (on the left, with roots marked 1, 2, 3 and 4), and wild mustard, 22 days after emergence. (This graphic is from Pavlychenko and Harrington, 1937: Ecology Vol. 18 No.1 Pages 62-79.)

Getting to the root of the matter

For a look at the big picture, the ‘old’ research on roots is still relevant today

Plant roots are receiving more attention of late and well they should. Roots are the foragers that deliver water and nutrients to the plant, but too often our attitude is “out of sight, out of mind.” With the current interest in many plant species, cover crops and soil health, much of it comes down to […] Read more

Brown mustard. (Peggy Greb photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Mustard acres feeling squeeze from canola

CNS Canada –– Following the largest mustard crop in more than a decade in 2016, supply/demand fundamentals are expected to spur a reduction in Canadian mustard seedings in 2017. However, with more and more cropland moving into canola, mustard acreage increases may be limited in future years when supplies are tight again. After growing the […] Read more