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Replace that pencil with an online calculator
Crops, Features

Replace that pencil with an online calculator

Take your homework from page to screen. Online calculators can help you add up production costs and estimate profits

By
If you need help planning for the upcoming crop year, there are plenty of online tools on provincial government websites to help. Some of them are in downloadable, customizable Excel spreadsheet format; and others are downloadable software that can producers can save to their computer and customize. With different soil and climate conditions, each Prairie […] Read more
grain bins and barley field
Crops, Features

Would your farm pass the stress test?

When you pencil out 
your farm budgets, 
calculate some “what if” 
scenarios as well

By
New provincial guidelines for estimating 2017 crop production costs are being released across the Prairies. These guidelines can help producers predict their operating costs, breakeven yields and profitability. Producers should also be doing a “stress test” to see how much deviation from those predictions the farm can actually bear without losing money, is the advice […] Read more
The affected plants were all stunted, with small heads, brownish stained lower stems and yellow bottom leaves. There was virtually no root mass.
Cereals, Crops, Features

Crop Advisor’s Casebook: The mystery of sickly durum wheat

A Crop Advisor's Solution from the March 10, 2015 issue of Grainews

By
In late July, I got an anxious phone call from Terry, who grows 3,500 acres of durum wheat, canola, flax and peas at his farm about 100 kilometres south of Regina, Sask. Terry was worried about the sorry state of his durum crop — the plants were looking extremely unhealthy and he feared nothing could […] Read more
“It’s tempting to spray while it’s calm, but if there’s no wind the droplets will often stay suspended for a while behind the sprayer,” says Dr. Tom Wolf.
Crops, Features

Herbicide drift not always wind-based

Spray drift can also happen when it’s calm, and the consequences can be dire

By
As many farmers have found out the hard way, herbicide doesn’t always go where you direct it. “Any time an application of spray is made, there are always small droplets that can move away from the intended target,” said Dr. Tom Wolf, applications specialist with Agrimetrix Research & Training. Generally speaking, herbicide drift is linked […] Read more
Crops, Features

Dicamba drift gets real

Will new spray chemistry lower the risk of dicamba drift in 2017?

By
In 2016, so many U.S. farmers spaying dicamba had spray drift problems that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a compliance advisory in August citing “an unusually high number of reports of crop damage that appears related to misuse of herbicides containing the active ingredient dicamba.” The EPA advisory said: “Extension experts across the country […] Read more
Maximize your sprayer productivity
Crops, Features

Maximize your sprayer productivity

By
How efficient are you when you’re using your sprayer? Tom Wolf, applications specialist with AgriMetrix Research & Training, told farmers at the November Saskatchewan oilseed grower meetings about a new sprayer productivity calculator his group has developed to help farmers answer this question. Read more: Herbicide drift not always wind-based Read more: Dicamba drift gets real In […] Read more
Crops, Features

The benefits of sex-free agriculture

With crop breeding by apomixes, seed-saving could change up the seed industry

By
Apomixis is a disruptive technology.” These was the oft-repeated phrase of Tim Sharbel, Global Institute for Food Security (GIFS) research chair in Seed Biology, at the recent Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation annual conference in Saskatoon. Sharbel was speaking on the topic “Eliminating sex from agriculture to feed the world,” an overview of his research at […] Read more
Crops, Features

Apomixis 101

By
Apomixis could be called the Holy Grail of plant breeding. According to Rob Duncan, a canola breeder at the University of Manitoba, scientists have been working on it since the 1840s. Even Gregor Mendel, the father of modern genetics, caught the apomixis bug, analyzing the apomictic properties of hawkweed species in the 1860s. What is […] Read more
Once you suspect resistance, sending the seed for testing can confirm or allay your fears.
Crops, Features

Are there resistant weeds in your fields?

The answer to this question is probably yes. Testing can give you a definite answer

By
Every season more farmers face the challenge of herbicide-resistant weeds. “Herbicide resistance is the genetic capacity of a weed population to survive a herbicide treatment that, under normal use conditions, would effectively control that weed population,” said Dr. Jeanette Gaultier, weed specialist with Manitoba Agriculture. It’s sometimes described as evolution happening at an accelerated pace […] Read more
Wireworm: hard to control and on the rise
Cereals, Crops, Features

Wireworm: hard to control and on the rise

Without Lindane, there’s very little that cereal growers can do to control this pest

By
Wireworms ruin many cereal crops, and they’ve been on the rise since the federal government banned lindane for use as a pesticide in 2004. Lindane killed the bugs outright says Dr. Bob Vernon, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), and since its banning “there is really nothing that will kill them.” “Wireworms […] Read more

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