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Alfalfa crop being harvested
Crops, Features, Forages

Alfalfa seed production

Growing alfalfa for seed can require intensive management, 
but can be rewarding. Learn the basics of alfalfa seed production


By
Including alfalfa in a crop rotation can bring a number of agronomic benefits. Prairie farmers grow alfalfa for both forage and seed. Randy Toman, a farmer near Guernsey, Sask., began growing alfalfa for seed production over a decade ago. With lighter land well suited to forage and legume production, alfalfa was a good fit for […] Read more
canola plant
Canola, Crops, Features

Swede Midge: a potential ‘perfect storm’

There’s a new canola pest in town. 
It’s hard to spot and hard to control, 
but the damage it causes is easy to detect

By
Look up “perfect storm” in Wikipedia and you will see it is used to describe an event where a combination of circumstances will aggravate a situation drastically — and in a bad way. Such is the potential situation with an up-to-now unknown and non-native pest of cruciferous plants — swede midge. “This pest displays a […] Read more
Crops, Features

Cover crop buffet feeds microbes

Peace farmer Bill Gaugler is adding a cover crop to his farm’s 
rotation, in hopes of increasing yields with less fertilizer

By
Bill Gaugler hopes including a multi-species plant cover crop year in his rotation will improve soil health on his Alberta Peace River region farm. That could lead to several benefits — Gaugler hopes it could help improve his overall crop yields, or allow him to maintain yields with less or even no fertilizer. It isn’t […] Read more
Turnips used as a cover crop.
Crops, Features

Cover crops increase profitability

Panelists shared cover crop success stories at the Commodity Classic conference in San Antonio

By
Cover crops not only improve soil health and bump yields, but also increase profitability, a U.S. farmer told farm show delegates in San Antonio. Jamie Scott was part of a panel at the 2014 Commodity Classic this past February. Scott uses cover crops on his Indiana farm and coordinates the seeding of cover crops on another 100,000 […] Read more
leafcutter bee on alfalfa flower
Crops, Features

Leafcutter bee production

Many alfalfa seed growers raise their own leafcutter bees 
to pollinate their crops and earn some extra cash

By
Leafcutter bees are the bee of choice when it comes to pollinating alfalfa. They are aboveground nesters and good pollinators, which favour alfalfa nectar. According to Bob Mennie, production manager of Mennie Bee Farms Inc., near Parkside, Sask., leafcutter bees are “easy to handle and tend to stay close to where the shelters are.” Managing […] Read more
big green tractor
Crops, Features

Controlled traffic farming

As machinery gets bigger, that extra weight seems to take a toll on crop growth. Controlled traffic farming may offer a solution

By
From Grainews, Feb. 4, 2014, page 8: Controlled traffic farming uses tramlines to separate crop production zones and traffic lanes, Peter Gamache explains. “In practice, that means all implements have a particular span or multiples of (the tramline) and all wheel tracks are confined to specific traffic lanes.” Gamache led a three-year project examining the effects […] Read more
alternaria on a canola leaf
Canola, Crops, Features

Alternaria dust no cause for concern

By
While swathing napus canola last year, some Prairie farmers reported an odd phenomenon: blackish-green dust was covering their swathers. The cause, says Clint Jurke, a Canola Council of Canada agronomy specialist, was more than likely alternaria black spot, and more of a curiosity than cause for concern. “The windows of their swathers were turning blackish-green. As far […] Read more
Sunflowers in a field.
Features, News

Watch for sunflower diseases

Farmers interested in planting sunflowers in 2014 should 
be ready to protect them 
from sclerotinia head rot 
and sunflower rust

By
Sunflowers are generating a great deal of interest for 2014 planting. “Interest in sunflowers is very high this winter,” says Anastasia Kubinec, oilseeds business development specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. “It’s price driven and contracts are being scooped up very quickly.” About 90 per cent of Canada’s sunflower acres are in Manitoba, […] Read more
peas
Crops, Features

Up and coming pea varieties

By
CDC Meadow and CDC Golden are currently the acreage kings for yellow peas in Saskatchewan. But two young guns could usurp one leader. CDC Saffron and Amarillo “could take the place of Meadow, for example.” Dr. Tom Warkentin told CropSphere delegates in Saskatoon last January. Warkentin specializes in pulse breeding and research at the University of […] Read more
Crops, Features

Seeding with thousand kernel rates

Agronomists promote using thousand kernel rates to calculate seeding rates. 
But many farmers still haven’t picked up the habit

By
Talk to almost any agronomist, and a lot of farmers, and they will tell you that they calculate seeding rates using 1,000-kernel weights (TKW) and target plant populations. They don’t use some arbitrary and antiquated volume measure. Why aren’t all farmers using this strategy? “The root of the reason, I believe, is there’s not enough […] Read more

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