To my great disappointment I recently learned of the impending demise of the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI), an organization funded by primary producers of fertilizer products. IPNI was involved in a wide array of activities to further the efficient and effective use of fertilizers to keep farms profitable and to feed the people of […] Read more
Les Henry: Mourning the loss of the International Plant Nutrition Institute
Information will be lost with the end of this valuable organization
Les Henry: Soils, grassland and bush
Manage your soils based on what’s going on underneath the soil
I penned a piece with this same title in 1989. Since then, we have learned some new things about how grassland and bush soils function. In the old days the actual 35 mm slides of the soil profiles had to be sent by snail mail to Winnipeg and the captions were in the paper copy […] Read more
Les Henry: A pretty little slough, a picture story
Sloughs are affected by the underground as well as surface features
Be patient. This piece does have a punch line and it does relate to farming — but it comes at the end. Carry on and read. No peeking! In 2007 I was involved in a hydrogeology study of a new subdivision in southeast Saskatoon. The real work was done by an engineering firm who hired […] Read more
Les Henry: Peanut scrambles or problem solving?
We need agricultural research, but we also need to fund the right agricultural research
The need for ongoing programs of agricultural research to keep our industry functioning and profitable is without question. But how it is organized, how the money is spent and on what basis the money is allocated needs some discussion. Recently I have spent some time perusing the websites of various agricultural research funding organizations — […] Read more
Les Henry: How does ground get salty?
What causes salty ground, and a two-step process to fix the problem in your fields
After scribbling for this many years, it is no surprise that I’ll repeat the same song several times. Perhaps if I sing the song in a different tune it will resonate with more people. Salty ground is one such topic and this time I’ll try a new approach. A few years back this column predicted […] Read more
Les Henry: Crop Week offers a good mid-winter break
Saskatoon’s annual winter farm show offers a chance to see old friends and new tech
The highlight of cold, dark January is Crop Week/Crop Production Show that takes place in Saskatoon each year. One of the things that takes place during that week is the annual reunion of the Saskatchewan Agricultural Graduates Association (SAGA). The saga of SAGA SAGA formed in 1935 when a few Agros (University of Saskatchewan ag […] Read more
Les Henry’s stubble soil moisture map, as of Nov. 1, 2018
There’s more red ink (dry areas) than we’d like to see on this year’s map
Each year when I make up this very general map, I keep hoping for a young generation to come along with better technology and smarts to make a better map. I now see a very bright light at the end of the tunnel. My December 12, 2018, article talked about the soil moisture sensor probes […] Read more
In response to, ‘Cover crops and green manure’
Clearing up a tillage misunderstanding from a previous column
It is always a thrill to get letters and book orders from readers. Most letters are complimentary and a joy to receive. But, a recent letter disagreed with ideas in my September column that talked about cover crops and green manure. A phone call cleared up the matter. It was completely my fault for not […] Read more
Finally, soil moisture measuring meets new tech
A map of soil moisture at freeze-up can give you a good indication of your yield potential
Water in the bank is a certainty; rainfall is a probability. Much of what we do in farming is based on probabilities — a game of chance. What are the chances we will get timely rains to keep a crop from withering away to a low yield? What are the chances we will suffer disease […] Read more
Farming from plough to now
From mining the nutrients to zero-till farming, with ups and downs on the way
As we approach the happy Christmas season let us set aside the latest news and consider the steps that have taken us to this point in our farming endeavors. In Manitoba and southeast Saskatchewan some farming went on in the late 1800s but the big acres of the Palliser triangle were still in prairie grass […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
