Close call on the farm

Farmers face risk on a regular basis. Routine tasks can quickly turn life-threatening, as Dorothy Barr discovered while loading grain to feed her cattle. Dorothy and her husband, David Barr, farm just over 1,000 acres near Mervin, Saskatchewan. David also holds a full-time job off the farm, making seeding and harvest hectic. May 29, 2009, […] Read more

Frozen soils: Life under the soil

More of our nutrients are lost of snow melt run-off than rain. Researchers are working 
on ways to lower this loss

Dr. Barbara Cade-Menun is a research scientist at the Semiarid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre (SPARC) at Swift Current, Saskatchewan. A soil scientist by training, Cade-Menum is the “nutrient cycling” scientist at SPARC. This role moves her beyond traditional soil fertility, and includes nutrient transport from land to water. The focus of her research is to understand how nutrients […] Read more


Lending a farm hand

Steven Sirksi describes his working holiday in Australia, and tells you 
how you can get a job on a farm Down Under

The working holiday scheme demonstrates that it doesn’t take much to travel. Although you will have to front the cost of the visa and airfare, once you lock in your job, especially on a farm, you’ll find that you’re able to repay your debts fairly quickly. (The visa and the airfare are both tax deductible.) I worked a […] Read more

photo: university of alberta

The next wave of canola research

Western Canadian researchers hope to give new canola cultivars 
a shot in the peduncle by introducing genes from other plants

Introducing genes from other plants into canola cultivars will do everything from bump up yields to fend off flea beetles to impart disease resistance. Dr. Habibur Rahman, a canola researcher with the University of Alberta, is working on several projects to improve future canola cultivars. In one project, he and his research team are introducing […] Read more


Bio-industrial markets a good option for triticale

The Canadian Triticale Biorefinery Initiative is out of funding, 
but research into bio-industrial uses for triticale is still underway

Triticale, a human-made hybrid of wheat and rye, has never seen the demand enjoyed by its cereal cousins in Canada. Traditionally, western Canadian farmers have largely avoided using triticale in their rotations due to limited marketing opportunities. While triticale boasts high yields and high biomass, along with added benefits such as disease resistance and high […] Read more

Managing wild oats

Controlling wild oats is not an easy task. But researchers hope a six-year study will reveal a recipe to manage wild oats with fewer herbicides

Wild oats is one of our most common weeds and the weed we spend the most money on in terms of herbicides every year. And of course resistance is building up,” said Eric Johnson, weed biologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Johnson said that there aren’t many herbicide groups available to control wild oats. Group 1 and […] Read more


Growing carinata

With new higher-yielding carinata varieties 
on the market, farmers have another oilseed 
to add to their rotations

In the mid-19th century, Captain John Palliser described the region that now includes southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan as a desert or semi-desert, and deemed the area unsuitable for settlers. Despite climatic limitations, farmers have settled Palliser’s Triangle, and they now have another hardy oilseed to add to their rotations — carinata, also known as Ethiopian mustard. […] Read more

New triticale varieties offer wheat alternative

Triticale, a human-made hybrid of wheat and rye, has never enjoyed the popularity of either of its parent crops in Canada. However, researchers have found that triticale varieties offer so many benefits to western Canadian farmers that it may soon be included in their ranks. And if it doesn’t, it should. Traditionally, farmers have avoided […] Read more


Bringing soybeans to the field

Soybean acreage in Manitoba and Saskatchewan has rocketed up in 
recent years. Most of this growth is due to Ron Gendzelevich

If you ask western Canadian farmers when soybeans were first commercially grown in Manitoba, most would probably guess sometime around 1998. But soybeans have actually been grown in Manitoba for much longer than that — since 1992. Their numbers have increased dramatically with thanks almost entirely to one man, Ron Gendzelevich, owner and President of […] Read more

Using the Prairie Locator

Here’s an app that will help you find directions to a land location and show you the satellite image

Have you ever agreed to do some custom work for a neighbour or friend, but they didn’t have time to show you the exact field? The Prairie Locator app can help you with this problem if you’re in Alberta, Saskatchewan or Manitoba. With this app you can search multiple land locations to get the latitude, […] Read more