Reduce your risk of rust

Late seeding across a lot of the Prairies due to wet spring conditions last year meant a fair amount of leaf, stem and stripe rust occurred in wheat crops, and Alberta reported incidences of stripe rust which appeared to have overwintered. Rust diseases generally blow in as spores from the southern U.S. in early summer, […] Read more

The futures hedge

Farm product prices change because of changes in supply and demand. During the growing season, because of production concerns, attractive pricing opportunities often arise before farmers have grown the crops. Forward pricing to take advantage of those relatively high prices may be done directly by using a deferred delivery contract or, for commodities with a […] Read more


Foliar Fertilizer

When you’re sitting on the tractor seeding with auto steer you have a lot of time to think. It’s always mind blowing to figure out how much money is going into the crop with every pass. Most Western Canadian farms take the plunge at seeding time and place down a good portion of their variable […] Read more

Soil EC mapping technology

With all technology there comes a time when there is a major shift from the old to the new. This usually comes from technology that’s been around for a few years, but either hasn’t been available in mass form, is too expensive or complicated for the average person to afford or hasn’t yet been perfected. […] Read more


Farmers finding the fit for precision agriculture

Western Canadian farmers have a range of views of where and how precision farming technology fits in with their specific farming operations. Some are quite convinced new technology such as variable rate applications has a fit, some are rethinking the economics of variable rate technology (VRT), and still others have a more cautious wait-and-see, “will […] Read more

New ag apps for iPad

If you own an iPad, there is a pair of new agricultural apps that can turn it into a much more useful tool. They may even save you time and money. ScoutDoc First, there is ScoutDoc, offered by AgNition Inc. of Guelph, Ontario, which allows you to turn that iPad into a handy field scouting […] Read more


Build your own ATV

There’s no denying the fun and practicality of an all terrain vehicle but there’s also no denying how expensive these toys can be. A new model loaded with all the bells and whistles can ring the register at more than $10,000. This may not be in your budget, but that doesn’t mean you have to […] Read more

A TALE OF TWO FIELDS

Knowing the history of your field can be your most important tool when trying to diagnose an agronomic dilemma. As Landon, a farmer from Earl Grey, Sask., experienced first-hand, past activities can shape a plant’s interactions with its environment, and ultimately, the crop’s development. In the spring of 2011, Landon had planted two fields with […] Read more


BARLEY BLUES

Jim didn’t know what to think. By the third week of June, random areas of stressed, stunted and generally unhealthy malt barley plants had developed in an otherwise healthy field. “I’ve got another barley field close by that is healthy and growing vigorously,” he told me. “I think it could be excessive moisture, nutrient deficiency […] Read more

That F100 thing

People are passionate about F100s and I can see why. They are a hardy and good-looking truck. When I worked as landscaper in Banff in the early 1980s we used a beige 1968 F-100. It was a rugged machine that never let us down except for vapour-lock on a hot day. We would head off […] Read more