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To hit up problem weeds, such as herbicide-resistant kochia (far left photo), Alberta farmer Dallas Vert applies a post-harvest weed control treatment of Valtera. Last year, Saskatchewan farmer Dallas Leduc’s post-harvest application of Roundup ProActive 360 tank mixed with four ounces of 2,4-D worked well on Canada thistle (middle photo) and narrow-leaved hawk’s beard (right) on his farm.
Crops, Features, News

Zap troublesome weeds in the fall

Whether it works best pre- or post-harvest depends on several factors

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A sampling of western Canadian producers, when asked about their fall weed control measures, have most generally agreed that either a pre- or post-harvest herbicide application is a valuable management tool. Most of the farmers contacted leaned toward a post-harvest treatment with a glyphosate product, although there are a number of caveats that come into […] Read more
Matt and Angela Kumlin move their cow-calf pairs to pasture.
Cattleman’s Corner, Livestock

Ranchers apply new practices summer and winter

High-intensity grazing along with swath grazing boosts overall production, plus how to construct a 3-D fence

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Matt and Angela Kumlin, a young farm couple near Cochrane, Alta., are making major changes to their forage management and winter feeding programs, and they’re seeing beneficial results. They have cattle of their own and take in yearlings for custom grazing in the summer, utilizing different forages in their pasture mix. “Most of our grassland […] Read more
This full-season cover crop, which ended up being mostly oats and volunteer mustard, provided excellent summer pasture for cow-calf pairs under a strip grazing system.
Crops, Features

No such thing as failure, it’s all a learning experience

Plans are good in theory, but moisture is needed to really see what works

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When Josh Beck describes some of the practices he’s tried in a bid to incorporate regenerative agriculture practices on his southern Alberta farm, you’ll probably hear him say a few times, “Everything was looking really good early in the growing season … and then it turned dry.” Lack of growing season moisture is not only […] Read more
Faked fuzz facts on fusarium
Columns, Crops

Faked fuzz facts on fusarium

The real story of Alberta’s fusarium head blight control program

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Fusarium head blight (FHB) of wheat, barley, oat, rye and triticale caused by Fusarium graminearum is the most destructive disease of cereals in Western Canada right now. This fungus is also a destructive disease on corn, particularly in Ontario and the United States, where it is the exact same disease that we have on small […] Read more
Friendly Acres Seed Farm’s Kevin Elmy is the founder of Cover Crops Canada and the author of Cover Cropping in Western Canada.
Crops, News

It’s all about making healthier soil

Get soil chemistry and organisms back on track

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What do you want to change about your cropping operation? That’s the first question farmers need to think about as they look into the relatively new world of regenerative agriculture (regen ag). It’s a big subject area, with plenty of variables, layers and “twists,” say agronomy consultants who work with producers on implementing regen ag […] Read more
Some flooded out farmers on the Prairies could help themselves by seeding a cereal crop this month.
Columns, Crops

Seed cereal crops in August in waterlogged regions of Alberta this year

Crops could remove up to 10 inches of moisture from flooded croplands

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This year in the northern and north-central areas of Alberta, particularly in the Edmonton region, we have had an unusually wet spring and summer, following a wet fall and lots of winter snow. It has been estimated this spring and summer that the Edmonton area has had up to 20 inches of rain. As a […] Read more
These photos, taken on August 15 just west of Edmonton, show classic copper deficiency. The field is a sandy loam soil with five to six per cent organic matter. The roadway, built about 10 years ago, has shoulders made up from deep-dug clay loam piled onto the field from the ditch. This clay loam is low in organic matter, probably one to two per cent or less, but high in available copper (see more below, including video).
Cereals, Columns, Crops

Identifying copper deficiency in wheat

Ieuan Evans looks at 2019 growing conditions, including areas where copper levels are low


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In early August in central Alberta I was still seeing yellow fields of canola. Honeybees and mosquitoes were having an extended nectar flowing season. I will stick my neck out as usual and make a few observations and prophecies across the Western Prairies. Crops are late in the northern part of the Western Prairies, but […] Read more
This durum wheat crop was still ripening in southeastern Saskatchewan on Aug. 4, 2019.
News

Farmer Panel: Weather just needs a balancing device

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Too dry in some areas — harvest started as early as late July, but in some cases not much crop to combine — while on the other end of the scale it doesn’t want to quit raining, with some crops drowned out and harvest likely to be delayed. Those are the extremes. Conditions on other farms […] Read more
Cover crop growing after harvest.
Crops, Features

Why didn’t my cover crop work?

Kevin Elmy lists nine potential causes of things that could go wrong when you try growing cover crops on your farm

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Ever try something and it didn’t work the first time? What’s the next step? Try again doing the same thing, modify the approach or give up? Ideally, getting a mentor or someone with experience to find out what went wrong will help create a successful situation. Or maybe it just doesn’t work. Cover cropping is […] Read more
The family at Friendly Acres Seed Farm. Kevin Elmy and his wife Christina, Kevin’s parents, Robert and Verene, and Kevin and Christina’s daughters, Kennedy and Haley.
Crops, Features

Friendly Acres 2018 year in review

Changes are in store for Friendly Acres, but soil health will still be the top priority

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One of the challenges of farming in a continental climate is weather. That is why farmers talk about it, complain about it, and want to either get good forecasts for it or control over it. Looks like the excess water issue that we had for eight years solved itself. Two years of below-normal moisture has […] Read more

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