Some researchers have found that the land equivalent ratio is greater with crops grown together than with crops grown individually.

The science behind intercropping

When plants can share nutrients, they can yield higher together than separately

Just as the adoption of no-till agriculture on the Prairies several decades ago was farmer-driven, the current shift to ecological (sometimes called regenerative) agricultural practices is no different, says Dr. Martin Entz of the University of Manitoba. “In this fascinating carbon world, we’re now moving beyond just crop rotation and beyond just grazing management all […] Read more


(Oneilcarlier.albertandp.ca)

Alberta ag minister Carlier downed in UCP win

Alberta’s incumbent agriculture minister was among the casualties as Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party defeated Rachel Notley’s New Democrats in Tuesday night’s provincial election. Oneil Carlier, the provincial NDP government’s minister of agriculture and forestry since May 2015 and deputy government house leader since February 2016, was unseated in his riding of Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland […] Read more

Collecting a swab for Trich test.

Trich test — make sure bulls are clean

It’s an important tool for avoiding reproductive problems

Trichomoniasis is a reproductive disease which results in early pregnancy loss and open cows at the end of the year. The first thing a producer might notice is cows returning to heat when they should be pregnant. This sexually transmitted disease is caused by protozoa that live in the reproductive tract of cows and sheath […] Read more


Breed frame size may influence twins

Breed frame size may influence twins

Multiple births are common among sheep and goats, but what about beef cattle?

Twins in beef cattle have always intrigued me. Then a Speckle Park producer from New Zealand combined two of my favourite things into triplet heifers — splashy colour and multiple births. Statistically, the odds of bovine triplets are 105,000 to one, with the odds of having same-sex triplets around 700,000 to one. Our experience with small ruminants raised the […] Read more

Sea surface temperature anomalies over the equatorial Pacific for the week centred on April 3, 2019. (CPC.ncep.noaa.gov)

Prairies can expect unexpected from El Nino this summer

MarketsFarm — The U.S. National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center on Thursday reported a 65 per cent chance of El Nino prevailing throughout 2019’s growing season. “A weak El Nino is likely to continue through the Northern Hemisphere summer 2019 (65 per cent chance) and possibly fall (50-55 per cent chance),” the CPC’s report said. […] Read more


The profile shown here is of a black soil where moisture conditions were more favourable and the depths of topsoil were greater. Many of the thick black soils were able to accumulate that level of organic matter because they often have sub irrigation from high water tables.

Les Henry: Soils, grassland and bush

Manage your soils based on what’s going on underneath the soil

I penned a piece with this same title in 1989. Since then, we have learned some new things about how grassland and bush soils function. In the old days the actual 35 mm slides of the soil profiles had to be sent by snail mail to Winnipeg and the captions were in the paper copy […] Read more



Doug Wray has the main herd calving on pasture. Once he has some calves on the ground — three or four days or 
a week’s worth — he moves those cow-calf pairs out of the main herd and onto to fresh pasture.

Keep cow-calf pairs moving at calving

Separating newborns from older calves reduces scours risk

Editor’s Note: This is part of a feature blog article produced by the Beef Cattle Research Council on the value of developing a calving system that separates newborn cow-calf pairs from older calves to reduce the risk of disease spread. The concept is known as the Sandhill Calving system although there are variations on the theme. Doug Wray believes […] Read more