What if farmers could predict Mother Nature’s moods in the growing season? The idea is becoming less and less far-fetched with advances that help producers put a number on disease risk. But fusarium head blight (FHB) risk assessment maps are only one factor among many influencing spraying decisions. FHB risk assessment maps have been available […] Read more
Use those fusarium maps
Know your risk: fusarium maps offer another metric for spraying decisions
Palmer amaranth continues to spread north
Producers should learn to spot the tall, fast-growing weed before it becomes a problem
Amaranth is extremely nutrient-rich. It was important to the Aztecs, and is still cultivated in South America and Mexico. It germinates easily, grows rapidly and produces huge numbers of seed. But the crop that sustained the Aztec economy famously wreaked havoc on the American cotton industry, and is now affecting corn and soybean producers in […] Read more
Kochia not confirmed ‘triple resistant’ — yet
Producers should take action against kochia based on threat severity
Triple-resistant” kochia — kochia resistant to herbicides in Groups 2, 4 and 9 — hasn’t yet been confirmed in Alberta despite recent media reports, says Hugh Beckie, a weed scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Surveys have turned up two-way resistant kochia, specifically Group 2 plus Group 4, and Group 2 plus Group 9 resistant weeds, but […] Read more
Creativity on the farm
Bonny MacNab is a woman of many talents
When Bonny MacNab got off the train to visit her grandparents in northwestern Saskatchewan in the early ’80s, she only expected to stay for a short visit. Raised in B.C., MacNab was heading to Toronto to pursue a career in the arts. But the Prairies, which she’d loved since she was a child, surprised her […] Read more
GM potatoes are going in the ground
Genetically engineered potatoes could claim acreage in Canada in 2017
In 2016, no acres were seeded to J.R. Simplot’s genetically engineered first-generation Innate potato lines in Canada — but industry experts say 2017 will be a different story. “Other than plot-sized production there was no commercial production in Canada this year because of the timing,” says Kevin MacIsaac, general manager at the United Potato Growers […] Read more
The benefits of sex-free agriculture
With crop breeding by apomixes, seed-saving could change up the seed industry
Apomixis is a disruptive technology.” These was the oft-repeated phrase of Tim Sharbel, Global Institute for Food Security (GIFS) research chair in Seed Biology, at the recent Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation annual conference in Saskatoon. Sharbel was speaking on the topic “Eliminating sex from agriculture to feed the world,” an overview of his research at […] Read more
Apomixis 101
Apomixis could be called the Holy Grail of plant breeding. According to Rob Duncan, a canola breeder at the University of Manitoba, scientists have been working on it since the 1840s. Even Gregor Mendel, the father of modern genetics, caught the apomixis bug, analyzing the apomictic properties of hawkweed species in the 1860s. What is […] Read more
On-farm 3D printing still a pipedream
Ag Technology: So far, the plastic parts that can be printed are only short-term farm solutions
When a non-standard equipment part breaks during harvest or spring planting, most farmers don’t have time to wait a few weeks for a replacement to arrive. What if they could print a new part right on the farm? That’s the dream being peddled to agricultural industries by a burgeoning 3D printing market, and it’s close […] Read more
Equipment sharing is on the rise
From community spirit to a corporate platform: farmers have many ways to share
Several years ago, Bernie McClean started out farming with next to nothing. The Glaslyn, Sask.-based producer, who serves on the SaskCanola board, says it took “a lot of creative paths” to get where he is now. One of those paths was the decision to share a major piece of farm equipment — a John Deere […] Read more
Faster breeding with the Scanalyzer
Is field-scale robotic phenotyping: the next generation of precision ag?
It’s the world’s largest ag robot, and it could be called Precision Agriculture: Next Gen. Technically, it’s called the LemnaTec Field Scanalyzer. It’s a field-scale machine that looks at individual plants and quickly assesses many agronomic traits including leaf area, plant height, biomass, tip burn and drought tolerance, entirely on its own. LemnaTec, a German […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
