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Gabi Uelinger holds six of the required native plants for a 
Q2 meadow.
Features, Hay

Farming for the insects and birds

Government programs provide funds for Swiss farmers who follow new mowing rules

By
Schleitheim, Switzerland: All around me farmers are mowing. From June 15th onwards farmers are allowed to cut meadows and hayfields qualifying for Q2 government subsidies. The Q2 (qualitätsstufe 2) program aims to provide and protect healthy habitat for birds and insects. Non-qualifying fields are already being cut the second or even the third time. Obviously […] Read more
A traditional stone barn in Swaledale, Yorkshire. (JayKay57/Getty Images)
Livestock, Reuters, Weather

Britain outlines post-Brexit farm policy in bill

By ,
London | Reuters –– Britain will introduce legislation on Wednesday for agricultural policy after it leaves the European Union that will link support for farmers to the provision of public benefits such as tackling climate change or preserving beautiful landscapes. The Agriculture Bill, primarily covering England, will provide the basis for policy in a sector […] Read more
Figure 2: Impact of soil drainage on application of tall applied nitrogen.
Crops, Wheat & Chaff

Timing your fall nitrogen application

Q & A with Nutrien Ag Solutions

By
Q: We’re often told fall applications of anhydrous ammonia should not be applied until soil temperatures are below 10 C. Why? A: At one time fall NH3 applications were associated with Thanksgiving. With farm consolidation and the need to apply anhydrous on more acres in the fall, the question now is how early is too early? To understand […] Read more
Warren Eilers, in a slough bottom with an EM38. This spot is flushed of almost all salts.
Columns, Crops

Horse pasture soil salinity: beware of new ground

Land has been left in grass for a reason. And sometimes this reason is salinity

By
In the mid to late 1970s soil salinity was the biggest issue on many Prairie farms. The hue and cry was that we would soon have little land left to farm. Some said salinity was increasing by 10 per cent per year but I never bought into that number. From 1975 to 1980 we held […] Read more
This is what the asparagus patch looked like on October 10, 2017. Obviously still accessing enough water. It can root to 12 feet or more, so capillary rise from the water table is keeping it going.
Columns, Crops

Finally, the well went dry

Do you know where your water table is, 
and what it will offer this year?

By
At my Dundurn farm I now have three years of records of the water table level in my asparagus crop in the yard and at two locations in the annual cropped field. Now, you may wonder why I would bother you with asparagus data. I use my asparagus patch as a surrogate for perennial forage […] Read more
This soil is repairing and building, and looks like cottage cheese.
Crops, Features

Balancing the soil biology

Helping Mother Nature with the fungi:bacteria ratio can keep our soils more productive

By
Soil health. Sounds like a good target we should be aiming at. Where do we start? What do we measure? How do we know when we get there? The first thing we need to find out is where are we? Nicole Masers is an agro-ecologist with Integrity Soils. For her three-day course in regenerative soil […] Read more
Weekly rainfall from September 26 to October 2, 2017.
Columns, Crops

Soil moisture: the old and new stories

Know your subsoil moisture and your chance of rain to make seeding decisions

By
The first freeze-up stubble soil moisture map was made in Saskatchewan in 1978. Readers with Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water can see it on Page 109. It showed a lot of “very dry” and “dry” space. Red ink was common in the 1980s. The maps below show the situation in fall 1987 and fall […] Read more
How to tile a bin yard for drainage
Crops, Features

How to tile a bin yard for drainage

Tiling a bin yard is not the same as adding drainage tiles to a field. Find out why

By
When a Saskatchewan farmer turned to Twitter for advice on draining his bin yard, Grainews wanted to know what that would take. As I soon found out, it’s not as easy as it sounds, but the results can be well worth the effort. As with most things, consulting a professional is probably the best first […] Read more
Different types of soil have different properties. University of Alberta research is focusing on measuring soil quality.
Crops, Features

Controlling traffic to improve your soil

A new test offers another way to test soil quality improvements

By
It can be called “fractal hierarchical aggregation” or just “fractal aggregation.” Whatever the moniker, the new method of soil health testing promises to offer an important way to assess soil quality and land stewardship, says Guillermo Hernandez, an assistant professor at the University of Alberta. Hernandez is the lead researcher on a suite of projects […] Read more
Farm it like you’re ‘just’ renting it?
Features

Farm it like you’re ‘just’ renting it?

Do farmers look after rented farmland differently than land they own? Should they?

By
We’ve all heard the term “drive it like a rental” but could that also apply to farmland? Is a farmer more likely to use conservation practices like no-till or variable rate technology, or apply more fertilizer and/or manure to improve the fertility on land he or she owns than on rented land? In April 2013, […] Read more

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