With more large bins on the farm, safe grain storage has become more important. And keeping grain from heating or spoiling is more complicated than it would seem. “The chance of spoilage really depends on two things. It’s both temperature and moisture,” said Lorne Grieger, the Prairie Agriculture Machinery Institute (PAMI) vice president for Manitoba […] Read more

Safer grain storage with automation?
PAMI tests a new Australian system that controls fans based on outside weather

Most common fertility questions
Rigas Karamonos answers the fertilizer questions he’s hearing from farmers
At CropConnect in Manitoba in February, Dr. Rigas Karamanos gave his 868th presentation to farmers. He’s been counting. And, he said, it’s the 35th time he’s been asked to give a talk on “contemporary fertility issues.” He used his time on the CropConnect agenda to talk about the issues he hears farmers raising. Fertilizing for […] Read more

New online calculators available from the Canola Council of Canada
Just in time for spring seeding, the Canola Council of Canada has released new seeding rate and plant stand calculators. The Canola Council’s press release says,“growers often default to seeding rates of five lbs./ac. or lower, regardless of seed size or field conditions.” Using these new tools will make it easier for farmers to make […] Read more

Editor’s Column: Living the “Life Out Here”
After they enjoyed Connect Ag, a large-scale conference in Saskatoon celebrating women in agriculture, some of the women in the town where I grew up decided to create something similar a little closer to home. And so the latest annual get-together for women was born. This February, the Lacadena Area Women (the LAW, as they […] Read more

Editor’s Column: Is it time to get together?
I’ve written in this space several times about the newly formed farm commodity groups that collect levies from us to co-ordinate research and marketing for Prairie crops. We pay levies to organizations for each crop we grow, from canary seed to canola. If this was Iowa and we grew only corn and soybeans, things would […] Read more

Changing nitrogen use to avoid taxes
Nobody likes the idea of a new tax. Especially when it could impact the way we farm
[Updated: April 9, 2017] When Dr. Mario Tenuta braved icy roads to drive from his home in Winnipeg to Weyburn, Sask., to speak at the Indian Head Agricultural Research Foundation (IHARF) Soil and Crop Management Seminar, he wasn’t planning to make many friends. The University of Manitoba soil scientist had come to make farmers aware […] Read more
Dicamba drift gets real
Will new spray chemistry lower the risk of dicamba drift in 2017?
In 2016, so many U.S. farmers spaying dicamba had spray drift problems that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a compliance advisory in August citing “an unusually high number of reports of crop damage that appears related to misuse of herbicides containing the active ingredient dicamba.” The EPA advisory said: “Extension experts across the country […] Read more

Maximize your sprayer productivity
How efficient are you when you’re using your sprayer? Tom Wolf, applications specialist with AgriMetrix Research & Training, told farmers at the November Saskatchewan oilseed grower meetings about a new sprayer productivity calculator his group has developed to help farmers answer this question. Read more: Herbicide drift not always wind-based Read more: Dicamba drift gets real In […] Read more

Canola left out in your field? Make it count
You probably don’t even want to think about that canola that’s still out in the field this winter. But someone else is thinking about it. The Canadian Grain Commission is studying the impact of snow on canola quality. They’re looking for samples of canola from the 2016 growing year that has overwintered. CGC researchers are […] Read more

Editor’s Column: Our first forays into 4-H
I grew up on a farm without ever knowing anything about 4-H. (Don’t call child protective services or Ag Canada. I’ve looked into it, and my parents can’t be prosecuted. Surprisingly, it’s totally legal to let this happen.) Because I grew up with this disadvantage, it didn’t occur to me to enrol my own son […] Read more