My interest in this topic was piqued by the fact that I purchased a pound of poppy seed at an Edmonton grocery outlet and it cost me more than $10. I checked the internet and the literature on poppy seed growing and was surprised to find that Australia, Turkey, the Czech Republic and even Britain […] Read more
Poppy crops for Western Canada
Could this be an opportunity for Prairie farmers?
The many forms of nitrogen fixation
Huge energy inputs are required
How many of you know almost all of the non-nuclear munitions or bomb explosions that occur worldwide are due to the fertilizer nitrogen? There are other explosive chemicals, like potassium chlorate and silver iodide, but they are minor compared with fixed nitrogen. Dynamite, Semtex, picric acid, gun powder, gelignite and all of those other explosives, […] Read more
Hybrid wheat and apomixis
Practical Research: Are we any closer?
Eureka! Not really. In the next year or so, Syngenta will release a hybrid wheat variety using complex crossbreeding systems just ahead of a few rival companies working on the same problem. Hybrid wheat varieties combine the traits of two parent selections. Work started on hybrid wheat around 2010, and by 2023 there will be […] Read more
Present and future plant disease and weed issues in the Prairies, Part 2
It’s farm equipment that does the bulk of disease spread
In Part I of this discussion on plant disease and weed issues, I explored clubroot of canola. Now for the other nine listed and destructive disease and weed issues on my top 10 list. All nine of these disease and weed issues move from cropland to cropland in exactly the same way as clubroot of […] Read more
Present and future plant disease and weed issues in the Prairies, Part 1
Disease prevention works if you follow standard crop biosecurity procedures
Here are 10 of the more important disease and weed issues in Western Canada, but I could easily add 10 more. 1. Clubroot of canola2. Cereal cyst nematode3. Soybean cyst nematode4. Aphanomyces root rot of peas and lentils5. Verticillium wilt of canola6. Sudden death syndrome of soybean7. Potato cyst nematode8. Potato powdery scab9. Sclerotinia white […] Read more
What is soil fertility?
There are no miracles in crop production, just sound scientific facts
Soil fertility for field crops is a very simple affair but extremely difficult to easily explain. Think logically. There are no miracle fertilizers, only plain and simple chemical nutrients whether from an organic source or from a concentrate of nutrients we call chemical or synthetic fertilizer. There is no such thing as a synthetic fertilizer. […] Read more
What is soil?
Let’s explore the properties of your cropland’s soil
In everyday conversation involving agriculture, we hear about poor soils, clay soils, good soils, ruined soils, eroded soils, degraded soils, sandy soils, silty soils and so on. These names or descriptions are, for the most part, meaningless and very subjective. Soil is, in reality, a storehouse of water, mineral compounds of multiple complexities and plant-essential […] Read more
Successful pest protection and prevention programs
Given the right advice and a willingness to co-operate, Prairie growers can do a lot to mitigate or prevent crop yield losses
Pests of all kinds — weeds, animals, insects or diseases — would like to find a good home on your crop production acres. Prevention is by far the best method of pest control. If you can stop or prevent the pest from gaining a foothold on your acres, you are winning the battle. You do […] Read more
In praise of flax
Flaxseed prices compete well with canola and growing flax provides an additional rotational crop
When I moved west to the Prairies many moons ago, golden canola fields were the Cinderella crop and flax made up reliable blue oilseed acres. Prairie canola now exceeds 20 million acres, whereas flax, primarily grown in Saskatchewan, hovers at around one million acres (400,000 hectares). While canola yields have moved from the low 20 […] Read more
The bountiful Americas
Some thoughts on food
When we think of celebrations, such as Christmas, Thanksgiving or even Halloween, we give little thought to the food we eat. What about that Christmas or Thanksgiving turkey, the centrepiece of the celebration? Did this iconic bird come from Turkey? No way. Turkeys are exclusive to North America — Mexico, United States and Canada. There […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
