CANOLA RULES Henry Raupers grows two crops: winter wheat and canola. “Winter wheat has many advantages over spring wheat,” he says. “It has a wider market window, with milling, feed and ethanol options, and wider windows for seeding and harvest.” The farmer from Newdale, Man., tested winter wheat in various stubbles, including peas, barley and […] Read more
Best Stubbles For Winter Wheat
Harvest Faster With A Draper Header
Capacity is the big reason to use a draper header. From an engineering standpoint, draper headers are easier to build 36, 40 or 45 feet wide to match the potential output of the biggest combines. “Once you get over 35 feet with an auger, you have to look at centre supports and it just gets […] Read more
A Combine For $1,000
Your combine is an inefficient tool to test whether crops are ready for harvest — especially if your fields are a few miles away and you get the combine out there only to find out you should wait a day or two longer. You can’t get that precious harvest time back. There has to be […] Read more
Bin There, Done That
Jeff Tkachyk wanted more than just a grain bin. So he put up a canvas-covered steel-frame shed last summer to hold grain and whatever else he might want to store after the grain is cleaned out. The shed is 60 by 140 feet and holds 60,000 to 70,000 bushels — or more if he heightens […] Read more
Cart, Truck Or Semi?
In my May 8 blog at www.grainews.ca, I wrote about a farmer with two older grain trucks — a five-ton tandem and a three ton. The trucks haul grain from the combine to the yard, but this farmer often uses custom truckers— with super Bs — to haul grain to the elevator. The farmer wonders […] Read more
Control Wheat Pests Early
Tip one in Phil Needham’s pest control guidelines for wheat is to get rid of weeds. No surprise there. Weeds are often top of the list when it comes to reducing the yield potential of wheat and pretty much any other crop. “A lot of research work has been done to show that it takes […] Read more
Are You In A Hopper Hotspot?
HANDY GRASSHOPPER BOOKLET Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Saskatchewan Pulse Growers have a handy new booklet called “Grasshopper identification and control methods.” Dan Johnson at the research centre in Lethbridge developed the booklet with funding support from Saskatchewan Pulse Growers. Grainews has a PDF version of the book we can email to you. Saskatchewan Pulse […] Read more
What RTK Can Do For You
RTK isn’t for everyone. Not at what it costs today. But as more farms buy the gear, these costs will come down — as they always do for electronic devices. Then a new wave of adopters, including grain growers, will take the leap to precise sub-inch guidance. For Mark and Kevin Hood, cousins from Carberry, […] Read more
Wheat & Chaff – for Mar. 23, 2009
BIG FARMS MAKE $19 MORE PER ACRE Big farms make more money, a lot more. Not only do they have more acres, but they make more money per acre than smaller farms. That’s the word from Terry Kastens, ag economist with Kansas State University. He refutes the idea that big farms have smaller margins, but […] Read more
Grainews editor Jay Whetter was at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky for two days, February 12 and 13. Here are his top picks
The late Howard Cosell was a stubborn man. No matter how many times he was told or how many times he heard the name, the veteran sportscaster insisted on pronouncing Louisville, the home of the Kentucky Derby, as though it were spelled “Lewisville.” It’s supposed to be “Lou-ee-ville” or, as the locals say, “Loo-vul.” I […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
