Les Henry

I recently read an article in a farm magazine that made the point that nitrogen (N) is the biggest and most important of our farm inputs — and it is never far from the mind of a modern farmer. Let us try to explain the intricate workings of Mother Nature’s N cycle in comparison to […] Read more

I was recently invited to attend the annual convention of the Saskatchewan Conservation and Development Association (SCDA) — I had given a talk to the group on my views of drainage last year. The SCDA Act in Saskatchewan dates back to 1949 and the current Saskatchewan Water Authority Act was passed in 2005. It exists […] Read more

Most people not from the Prairies think our region is a tabletop from Winnipeg to Edmonton and all points in between. Yes, we have many level lacustrine (glacial lake) plains like the Red River Valley in Manitoba, the Regina and Rosetown plains of Saskatchewan, and the Edmonton area in Alberta. But we also have uplands […] Read more

For decades now our national government has administered a wide ranging and constantly changing suite of farm programs. To be honest, I think most of the politicians and bureaucrats that serve them and us are sincere in wishing to help the family farm survive. But many of these programs are so cumbersome and have such […] Read more

Readers must be forewarned that this is written with my farmer hat on. My academic and professional credentials are in agriculture and specifically soil science. But I have followed with considerable concern the rise of the Global Warming Empire. It now seems that almost all research that gets funded in agriculture or environment must manufacture […] Read more

I got a phone call from Lynn McLean, a farmer from Zealandia, Sask., one hour southwest of Saskatoon, who wanted to know about the research on residual phosphorus that had been done in the 1970s and 1980s. There was a lot of data from Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Montana and all the studies showed essentially the […] Read more

Table 1. Rise in water table for 1 inch of rain added to soil at full capacity Soil Texture Loamy Sand Loam Clay Inches of water table rise per inch of water added. 5 7 12 Soil is a porous medium. About half the volume is air space (pores) and the other half is solid […] Read more

The first airseeder was a discer put together by the famous Jerome Bechard of the Lajord-Sedley area southeast of Regina. A recent article I read pointed out the impact of public research on the zero till revolution. Don Rennie, my boss for many years at University of Saskatchewan, almost single handedly championed the demise of […] Read more

The land market in Saskatchewan is interesting at the moment. I hear rumbles of big outside interests buying up blocks of land with the idea that such farms can be managed by a management board sitting in comfortable boardrooms in high office towers. Now, to be honest I have no facts about the actual deals […] Read more