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Tag Archives cover crops

This full-season cover crop, which ended up being mostly oats and volunteer mustard, provided excellent summer pasture for cow-calf pairs under a strip grazing system.
Crops, Features

No such thing as failure, it’s all a learning experience

Plans are good in theory, but moisture is needed to really see what works

By
When Josh Beck describes some of the practices he’s tried in a bid to incorporate regenerative agriculture practices on his southern Alberta farm, you’ll probably hear him say a few times, “Everything was looking really good early in the growing season … and then it turned dry.” Lack of growing season moisture is not only […] Read more
Southern Alberta farmer Brady Valgardson has been experimenting with cover crops for the past five years. 
One of his objectives is to reduce the risk of soil being lost to wind erosion during the vulnerable post-harvest to pre-seeding period.
Crops, Features

The cover crop learning curve

There is plenty of good information in theory, but a Taber grower is learning what works best for his farm

By
Challenges, commitment, trial and error, faith and steep learning curve. Those are some of the terms that southern Alberta farmer Brady Valgardson uses when he describes his experience with regenerative agriculture over the past five years. Valgardson, who is the fourth generation on the family farm southwest of Taber (about 50 kilometres east of Lethbridge), […] Read more
Friendly Acres Seed Farm’s Kevin Elmy is the founder of Cover Crops Canada and the author of Cover Cropping in Western Canada.
Crops, News

It’s all about making healthier soil

Get soil chemistry and organisms back on track

By
What do you want to change about your cropping operation? That’s the first question farmers need to think about as they look into the relatively new world of regenerative agriculture (regen ag). It’s a big subject area, with plenty of variables, layers and “twists,” say agronomy consultants who work with producers on implementing regen ag […] Read more
Even as conditions dried out in April, the cover crops hung in to provide feed and weight gain on yearlings.
Cattleman’s Corner, Livestock

Cover crops fit in SE Australia

Report from Down Under: Warm-season crops produced excellent gains on grass-fed beef

By
With rain forecast for the next four days (in early May 2020) I take pen to paper to write about cover crops in southeast Australia. Seeding is well underway for these crops along with cereals, pulses, legumes, forages and others. The rain we are receiving across a wide swath of this part of the country […] Read more
Bayer’s cross symbol hangs in a terminal at Frankfurt International Airport. (Typhoonski/iStock Editorial/Getty Images)
Crops, Machinery, Reuters, Weather

Bayer launches carbon capture pilot for U.S., Brazilian farmers

Chem and seed firm expects to expand plan to other countries

By
Chicago | Reuters — Bayer launched a pilot program in the United States and Brazil on Tuesday that will pay farmers for capturing carbon in cropland soils, making it the latest agriculture company to capitalize on environmental initiatives. The company seeks to enroll about 1,200 row crop growers in its Bayer Carbon Initiative in the […] Read more
Closeup of a plowed field, fertile, black soil.
Crops, Features

The five principles of soil health

USDA researcher says healthy soil needs a systems approach

By
At the Regenerative Agriculture Forum in Brandon in November, Jay Fuhrer, soil health specialist with the Natural Resource Conservation Service of the USDA, spoke about soil health. Fuhrer has identified five principles of soil health, and how they work to improve soil health and increase productivity. Fuhrer defined soil health is defined as “the continued […] Read more
Farmers take a look at smaller-scale plots on a tour of the research farm at Carman, Man., in the summer of 2019.
Crops

Testing the cover crop hypothesis

Agronomy researchers are catching up with what farmers are doing in their fields

By
It’s an exciting time for cover crop research. Last summer, many large-scale cover crop trials were underway across the Prairies looking at everything from cover crop combinations, rotations and planting methods to pollinator strips. One of the biggest ongoing projects, funded by Western Grains Research Foundation, Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers and Manitoba Pulse and […] Read more
The One-Pass Cover Crop Seeder attachment is available on Unverferth’s new Rolling Harrow 1245 and 1245D models.
Machinery

New cover crop seeder attachment

Unverferth introduces the One-Pass Cover Crop Seeder option

By
Unverferth Manufacturing used the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky, in February as the venue to introduce its new mounted One-Pass Cover Crop Seeder attachment. It can be fitted the brand’s new Rolling Harrow 1245 and 1245D models that have working widths up to 37 feet. The attachment allows for one-pass planting of cover crops, an agronomic practice […] Read more
Holding an Earthworm in Hand
Columns, Crops, Hart Attacks

Don’t underestimate the power of soil bugs

Save money, increase profits by getting billions of little creatures working for you

By
There’s that message again — learning to farm without inputs. It is a pretty compelling concept: being able to grow a crop without $200 or $300 per acre invested in added fertilizer and crop protection products. Is it a myth? Does it work? What are these guys trying to sell me? Kevin Elmy says it works. […] Read more
This almost-robot looking device is the John Deere Field Connects weather station that collects a wide range of environmental data such as rainfall, solar intensity and wind speed. The weather station also ties into the moisture probe which is installed near the steel post at right.
Crops, Features

Are you leaving water on the table?

New app and service gives producers a better handle on moisture

By
Since technology so far can’t make it start or stop raining on dryland farms, it is obviously important to make the most efficient use of moisture that is available during the growing season. But how much moisture do or will you have for that crop? Depending on the year and location, spring seedbed soil moisture can range from […] Read more

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