Residual herbicide and crop injury

Residual herbicide and crop injury

When the worst happens: what questions to ask and how to soil test for a bioassay

Your cereal, oil seed or legume crop clearly shows that it has been significantly damaged by herbicide application or residual herbicide that was applied to cropland one or more years previously. You are considering possible legal action. What do you do next? First of all, you just don’t take a few photographs, complain about significantly […] Read more



Chickpeas. (CalypsoArt/iStock/Getty Images)

India to reimburse freight for some ag exports

New Delhi | Reuters — India will provide federal support for the transportation of some farm products to make Indian goods more competitive in foreign markets, the government said in a statement Tuesday. The scheme will be applicable for a year, to March 2020. The government will reimburse the freight paid by Indian exporters through […] Read more

Reclaiming our peasant heritage

Reclaiming our peasant heritage

First We Eat: Don’t be intimidated by Boeuf Bourguignon — 
just a fancy name for beef stew

Yesterday I walked home from morning coffee at my neighbour Sharon’s house, my passage closely observed by a leggy Black Angus calf. She bounced up to the barbed wire fence, her head high as she gave my dog and me the once-over. Jake stopped in his tracks, uncertain what this until-now-predictable creature was up to. […] Read more


Ryan Boyd talks soil structure to attendees of the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation conference in Manitoba during late August. Also pictured is his daughter, Piper.

Regenerative agriculture for the next generation

Ryan Boyd uses farming practices that rebuild his soil without breaking the ban

When he came back to the farm, Ryan Boyd was looking for a lower-risk farming scenario. As a young farmer, “I didn’t want to stick my neck out and have a large loss in one year,” he told reporters and communications professionals gathered on the approach to one of his fields near Brandon, Manitoba in […] Read more

Sunset in wheat field, late afternoon in wheat field - dusk in the cereal field

Copper: For peat’s sake!

Think peaty soil isn’t worth farming? Just add copper to get better results

Peat is nature’s natural organic compost. As a field crop amendment, peat has a lower carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C:N), 60:1, than straw or cattle manure — that’s around 80:1. Canada has 270 million — yes, million — acres of peat lands, making up 25 per cent of the world’s peatland supply. Peat is harvested right across […] Read more


Soybean and flax intercrop example.

Reducing inputs through intercropping

In Part 2 of a 2-part series, a panel of farmers discuss the benefits of intercropping

Many producers who adopt intercrops and cover crops are looking to increase soil and plant health and reduce the need for inputs such as synthetic fertilizers. That effect often becomes clearer the longer they manage the system. The three producers on a panel at an Intercropping Workshop in Brandon, Man., last November shared how they […] Read more

Roquette broke ground on its pea-processing plant in Portage la Prairie, Man., in September 2017. Construction was suspended in the spring of 2018, then began again this past October.

Roquette tweaks pea plant plans

The pea-processing plant is still under construction, with expanded plans

It’s been two years since French company Roquette announced its plan to build the world’s largest pea-processing plant in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. And while the company did break ground in September of 2017, construction was suspended in the spring of 2018, but began again this past October. Roquette expects the new plant to process […] Read more


Chickpeas in India. (Nikhil Patil/iStock/Getty Images)

Canada, U.S. to challenge India’s pulse price supports

Canada and the U.S. are set to challenge India’s market price supports for certain pulses including chickpeas and lentils. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Friday announced that “together with Canada” they’ve submitted a “counter notification” on the matter to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Committee on Agriculture (COA). […] Read more