Les Henry

In December it was my good fortune to attend the Manitoba Agronomists Conference in Winnipeg. My duty was to deliver a lecture on saline soils. It has been dry the past two summers in Manitoba, and black soils have turned white — as predicted in this column a year or two ago. It was my pleasure […] Read more

Soil pH to a soil scientist is like blood pressure to a doctor — it’s the first thing we want to know. The pH affects nutrient availability, and acid (sour) soils are generally unproductive. In many parts of the world liming acid soils to raise its pH is a fundamental part of farming. pH and […] Read more

The claims marketers make for some products seem too good to be true. Here are five signs that you may be looking at one of these “wonder products”

Readers long enough in the tooth may remember previous runs at this topic. But, there is a different twist now. Herbicides and fertilizers have significant hoops to clear before being placed on the market. Fertilizers are sold by guaranteed percentages of nitrogen (N), phosphate (P205) and Potash (K20).  But, many products appear that magically make […] Read more

When you’re looking at research data, make sure you know what you’re comparing, and which new products will make a real difference on your farm

After 36 years of writing columns you might expect that I’ve dealt with some topics more than once. This is one of them. It is all about interpreting research trials and the deluge of yield data that is used to convince a farmer to use a variety or product. It is all about natural variation […] Read more

Most farm press is all abuzz about the huge gains in farmland prices — especially in Saskatchewan. Now, everyone seems to know that Saskatchewan land prices are much below most provinces, so outside money is scrambling to get in on the ground floor and make a killing. I was raised in a rural municipality where much of the […] Read more

This issue marks 36 years since my first Grainews scribbles in November, 1976. Many thanks to the readers that advise me to keep writing. My Dundurn farm is in the Allan Hills south of Saskatoon — rolling land with stones and sloughs and many poplar bluffs. We normally dispense with bluffs by “pushing” the bush, […] Read more

Survey results are in. We’re seeing more and more earthworms in 
the Prairies than we saw before, and we sure don’t like them in our gardens

In the October 22, 2012 issue of Grainews we talked about earthworms and the impact our current farming system has had in developing viable populations in farm fields. It had been my observations that earthworms were rare in farm fields with our old farming system of fallow and mainly cereal crops with little fertilizer. The […] Read more

Earthworms provide numerous benefits to soil. One of the under-researched side effects of our switch to zero till may be an increase in earthworm activity

When I taught the first year soils class at the University of Saskatchewan, soil biology was a quick study. The rhizobium that fix nitrogen with legumes were discussed in detail. The bacteria that control conversion of organic nitrogen to the mineral forms (nitrate and ammonium) were also considered important. Earthworms The bigger things like earthworms […] Read more