Between 2010 and 2011, conditions at Saltcoats, Saskatchewan, were not as bad as they were for our neighbours to the north in 2010 or to the south in 2011. We had well above average rainfall both years, but it was worse in other places. With high commodity prices, we had incentive to get the crop […] Read more
Growing soybeans in 2011
Three uses for forage radish
When Columbus left the safety and comfort of his home to find the New World, people thought he was crazy; everyone knew the world was flat. Instead of finding India, Columbus found North America. Not what he was looking for, but a remarkable discovery. What does Columbus have to do with agriculture? Products that were […] Read more
A Good Year For Poor Man’s Corn
Called poor man’s corn for good reason, sorghum sudangrass is a warm season forage crop that looks like corn, grows like corn, but sure doesn’t cost what corn does. On trials on our farm, we’ve seen both extremes in production. In good years it was taller than our 4255 tractor, and in poor years it […] Read more
Three Strategies For Managing Wet Fields
Last year’s record rainfall not only stressed the crop and farmers, but it also has an impact on soil. All that water has longer-term implications for fields, as a lot of acres weren’t seeded or, worse yet, were mudded in. Unseeded acres will have very little water used and will have water-soluble nutrients either washed […] Read more
Wider Rows Reduce Waste Of Grazed Corn
2 010 turned out to be a very challenging year for livestock feed production. In some places, even if you got a crop in, it was too wet to even try to get the feed off. There were a few people who got corn in this spring in the hope it was going to produce […] Read more
Soybean And Canola Variety Results From A Very Wet Year
Just when you thought 2009 was way off from average, along comes 2010. The only really dry part of Western Canada was the Peace region. The rest was almost washed away. Alberta was very low for Corn Heat Units (CHU), while the rest of the Prairies were close to normal until the end of August. […] Read more
Even In A Tough Year, Soybeans Pull Through
Growing soybeans in 2009 — our eighth year with the crop — was quite the roller coaster ride. May was less than desirable, June was scary, July and August were wet, September was beautiful, October was a write off and November was awesome. It still turned out to be an average year for heat units […] Read more
2009 In Review At Friendly Acres
Results from Elmy’s InVigor strip trials 2009 Variety 8440 5020 5440 5770 Yield (bu./ac.) 56.6 49.2 49.1 43.5 % of 8440 100 87 87 77 % moisture 8.5 8.3 8.1 7.9 What is normal weather? At Yorkton, Sask., the year ended up to be average, but took a weird path to get there. Mid May […] Read more
After three years growing soybeans on our eastern Saskatchewan seed farm, we are pleased with the success. The low-input crop provides a good return for us
Soybeans have been one of the main crops for American farmers for many years, and for good reason. They are a low maintenance legume crop that fixes its own nitrogen and, because they have been grown in tight rotations, has a lot of genetic disease resistance bred into them. At Friendly Acres Seed Farm, we […] Read more
Rather than mixing up 20 cores from around the field to make one sample, take samples from two target spots that you know are “average”
How many soil samples should I take off of a field? How deep? Should I have a pattern? When should I take the samples? What lab do I use? Should I believe them? These are just a few of questions producers ask about soil testing. The key to accurate and useable soil test results is […] Read more
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