environment Archives - Page 6 of 7

Managing the carbon crop

The objective is to return more carbon to the soil than is released

By Sean McGrath April 21, 2017

One of the best parts of writing for Grainews is the people who contact me to question/disagree or express some interest in an aspect of a story I have written. I confess I have sometimes written pieces just to engage healthy discussion. I have always had an interest in the “global warming” debate and have […] Read more

Columns, Weather

Facing up to the truth about climate change

Reporter's Notebook: If we want consumers to accept the judgement of science, we need to return the favour

By Lisa Guenther March 23, 2017

Those pants look terrible on you. Perhaps you’ve experienced that awkward moment when you try to stop a friend from committing a fashion faux pas. If so, you may have agonized how to word your concerns to avoid offense, while still getting your message across. It’s a potentially volatile moment that perfectly captures how I […] Read more

Livestock, Reuters

Pacific trade pact countries seek ‘progressive’ way forward

By GFM Network News March 15, 2017

Vina Del Mar, Chile | Reuters — The remaining members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are seeking a way forward on the trade pact, they said on Wednesday, as some emphasized the need for deals to address concerns about workers’ rights and other issues. The TPP, which originally covered some 40 per cent of global […] Read more

Crops

Faster breeding with the Scanalyzer

Is field-scale robotic phenotyping: the next generation of precision ag?

By Julienne Isaacs February 21, 2017

It’s the world’s largest ag robot, and it could be called Precision Agriculture: Next Gen. Technically, it’s called the LemnaTec Field Scanalyzer. It’s a field-scale machine that looks at individual plants and quickly assesses many agronomic traits including leaf area, plant height, biomass, tip burn and drought tolerance, entirely on its own. LemnaTec, a German […] Read more

Columns, Crops, Weather

Les Henry’s prairie stubble soil moisture map

In the map of November 2016 soil moisture, there are no “very dry” areas

By Les Henry February 17, 2017

As usual, this map gives only a very general indication of the soil moisture situation on the Canadian Prairies as we went into freeze up November 2016. It can be summed up in a word WET. To make a soil moisture map it is essential that a good database of rain records from many stations […] Read more

Planning large-scale agricultural landscapes requires a lot of organization and co-ordination.

Crops, Features, Soybeans

Studying the whole ecosystem

Matthew Mitchell’s research looks at how soybeans are affected by nearby forests

By Lisa Guenther February 15, 2017

How can farmers produce food while also providing more environmental and societal benefits from the land they’re managing? That is a million dollar question that Dr. Matthew Mitchell is trying to answer. While completing his PhD in natural resource sciences at McGill, Mitchell was part of a larger, two-year study looking at how people affect […] Read more

Adding a pulse crop to your rotation will put N back into your soil, some even require less water to produce.

Columns, Crops, Weather

Get your farm ready for global warming

Agronomy management: How can you adapt your Prairie farm to changing climate conditions in the years to come? 

By Ross H. McKenzie February 10, 2017

Many Prairie farmers have gradually come to accept that global warming is real. Over the past 60 years, our Prairie climate has been gradually changing. In most regions of the Prairies the length of the growing season has increased, the amount of heat (growing degree days and crop heat units) has increased and the number […] Read more

A meadow is inspected to see if it fulfills the requirements for the subsidy program — diversity of plant species.

Features

Two markets; two attitudes

Letters from Europe: European growers work in a different policy and market environment  than Prairie farmers

By Marianne Stamm February 6, 2017

Recently a Swiss workshop speaker, Ruedi Sutter, commented on the many changes to Swiss agriculture in the last 30 years. It caused me to contemplate the similarity and difference of changes compared to western Canadian farmers. What I see when I visit “home” (Alberta), confirms my research on the web. The January 2016 report from […] Read more

Crops, Features, Livestock

What is holistic management?

Are cover crops on the rise?

By Leeann Minogue November 7, 2016

Holistic management is a framework for making decisions by looking at your entire environment, including your soil and the living organisms in it, how you’re capturing rainfall and energy from the sun and the diversity of the entire biological community. It also includes taking into account the environmental, economic and social consequences of the decisions […] Read more

Dr. Mario Tenuta looks at arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi through a microscope at CanolaPALOOZA, hosted by the Manitoba Canola Growers Association and the Canola Council of Canada at Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, in June.

Crops, Features

Nurture fungus for good growth

Find out why your flax suffers following canola. It’s all about the fungus

By Leeann Minogue September 15, 2016

There are a of things to consider when you’re planning long-term rotations: herbicide rotations, nitrogen needs, rainfall. How about adding fungus to that list? The relationship between fungi in your soil and plant roots has a big impact on your crop health. This relationship can cause flax to be stunted when it’s grown in rotation after canola. […] Read more

GFM Network News

U.S. livestock: Chicago cattle futures climb on post-Thanksgiving trade

U.S. grains: Corn futures set June high on US export demand

California researchers create nitrogen-fixing wheat

Tag Archives environment