After a couple of years of planting hybrid varieties and producing high yields without applying the necessary amounts of nitrogen, producers will be let down by lower yields. Average yields for canola have increased dramatically in a very short time. Five years ago growers harvested 20 or 30 bushels to the acre. Today they routinely […] Read more
Rethink Your Canola N Rates
Juncea Canola Needs Better Yields
James Staffen of Nipawin, Sask., seeded 45 acres of Xceed this year because he wanted to check out the possibility of straight cutting. After taking off yields that were 15 bushels to the acre, he says, “I’m not attracted to it any more.” Juncea canola made its large-scale debut on the Prairies in 2009. While […] Read more
Careful With Your Lentil Rotation
For Maurice Berry, who farms 4,900 acres near Carievale in southeastern Saskatchewan, preventing disease and resistant weeds are foremost on his mind as he rotates his crops. On his no-till farm, he sticks to the basic four-year rotation — sometimes bumping it up to five years by throwing flax in. But with the recent high […] Read more
How To Use A Sweep Net
Your sweep net technique has to match the methods used to establish spray thresholds — or else your counts won’t mean much. Follow these steps to do it right. STEP 1. GET A 15-INCH NET Jim Broatch, a Lacombe-based pest management specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, says the mouth of the net must […] Read more
Weevil Hits Early Canola Hardest
Alberta Agriculture suggests that farmers seed a border of earlier blooming canola around the perimeter of the field as a trap crop. Cabbage seedpod weevil is a relatively new pest on the Prairies. Though it was introduced to North America from Europe over 70 years ago, it wasn’t seen in significant numbers in Alberta until […] Read more
Farmers store grain on farm to capture the best market opportunities. That same rationale is why more farmers are buying fertilizer storage, too
To hedge against the volatile prices of fertilizer, many farmers turned to pre-buy programs this past winter. Some programs included on-site storage at the retailer’s. Other farmers took delivery or partial delivery on their fertilizer either by choice or because their retailer asked them to. Tim Macyk, who farms 5,500 acres in Thorhild County, Alta., […] Read more
If you plan to cut back on phosphorus fertilizer this year, you could try JumpStart to see if it helps bridge the gap
When phosphate is applied to the fields, it is immediately available to plants but it’s also highly reactive and will quickly bond with other elements in the soil. As a result, farmers have historically had to apply far more phosphate than needed. In fact, a conservative estimate of how much phosphate actually is taken up […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
