Les Henry Archives

Schoenau receives inaugural Les Henry Award

The late Les Henry announced the award’s first recipient earlier this year

By Grainews Staff September 17, 2024

Jeff Schoenau, a University of Saskatchewan professor and Ministry of Agriculture Strategic Research Program Chair in soil nutrient management, is the first recipient of the Les Henry Award. Henry, a renowned Grainews columnist, Saskatchewan soil scientist and professor emeritus at the university, died earlier this summer. He selected Schoenau to receive the award in April. […] Read more

Columns, Editor's column

Editor’s Rant: Thanks, Les

By Dave Bedard July 9, 2024

We begin with sad news for readers who haven’t already heard: Les Henry, a soil scientist and university professor dedicated to the improvement of Prairie farmland, and a mainstay in these pages for almost 50 years, left us on June 14 at age 83, ending a long fight with congestive heart failure. We can defer […] Read more

A canola crop in the RM of Fletts Springs, just northwest of the RM of Pleasantdale, in 2019.

Canola, Columns, Crops

Where the canola was: a history of Saskatchewan yields by soil climatic zone

Whether by nature, nurture or both, yields jumped in several zones around the turn of this century

By Les Henry June 16, 2024

Editor’s Note: Les Henry, the esteemed Prairie soil scientist and our longtime soils columnist, left us on June 14 at age 83. Up until the day before his passing, Les was working on and revising this column for the next (July 11) edition of Grainews. We’ll still have this on paper for you in a […] Read more

Les Henry. (University of Saskatchewan video screengrab)

Crops

Prairie soil scientist and author Les Henry, 83

Henry's outreach to farmers spanned more than half a century

By Dave Bedard June 15, 2024

Glacier FarmMedia — Saskatchewan soil scientist Les Henry, well known for his work on improving Prairie farmland and his outreach to Prairie farmers in the pages of Grainews, has died. Ending a long fight with congestive heart failure, Henry died Friday in Saskatoon at age 83, having continued to write until very shortly before his […] Read more

Crops, News

Soil scientist and Grainews columnist Les Henry, 1940-2024

Henry's outreach to farmers spanned more than half a century

By Dave Bedard June 15, 2024

Saskatchewan soil scientist Les Henry, well known for his work on improving Prairie farmland and his outreach to Prairie farmers in the pages of Grainews, has died. Ending a long fight with congestive heart failure, Henry died Friday in Saskatoon at age 83, having continued to write until very shortly before his passing. Born in […] Read more

Crops

The legacy of Henry’s Handbook

A book well known to Grainews readers will remain available

By Croptimistic Technology Release June 7, 2024

Les Henry is a former professor and extension specialist for the University of Saskatchewan, a farmer, and a regular contributor of print and online articles and columns for Grainews for the past 37 years. He is also the author of Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water. Today, we are pleased to announce that Henry has […] Read more

Columns, Crops

Zero till: how did it all happen?

Soils & Crops: In Saskatchewan, necessity was the mother of more than one invention

By Les Henry June 7, 2024

In March 1993 in Grainews there appeared a piece by a certain soils columnist titled “A Quiet Revolution in Crop Production.” It concluded that within the next two decades we’d see a revolution in the way we farmed. It came to pass much as predicted — but what made it happen was work in farm […] Read more

Your fearless columnist tosses the cell for electrical conductivity (EC) measurement into the Montreal River at Saskatchewan Highway 2 in July 2005. Results are recorded in a notebook and all is carried in a briefcase. I have notebooks like that all the way back to 1982. At this location, water EC is 260 uS/cm. In the north, water is mostly low EC; the standard for comparison is the South Saskatchewan River system that runs through Saskatoon, with an EC of about 450 uS/cm at 25 C.

Columns

Water chemistry: a Coles Notes version

Soils & Crops: Conductivity and hardness of water samples show what you can use it for

By Les Henry May 21, 2024

First of all: readers who have Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water can check out pages 124-125 for a detailed discussion of water chemistry, complete with calculations. Water is considered to be the universal solvent because it is capable of dissolving more substances than any other liquid. Therefore, one of the first things we might […] Read more

A hydrologist and a farmer draw water from a 30-foot sampling well in western Iowa, testing for nitrate and herbicides.

Columns

Nitrate down the well

Soils & Crops: If you move onto an old farmyard with an existing well, don’t drink the water without first getting it tested

By Les Henry April 24, 2024

This column has dealt with this topic several times over the decades we have been scribbling. Recent sources have raised the nitrate issue again. It deserves repeating once in a while, to make sure no more infants die from the blue-baby condition (methemoglobinemia). The link between nitrate-contaminated farmyard wells and blue-baby was first reported by […] Read more

A photo developed from old film stock looks over the village of Waldeck, about 20 km northeast of Swift Current, in 1976.

Columns, Weather

A climate update for our neck of the woods

You'll want to keep your long underwear handy for the next several winters

By Les Henry April 10, 2024

I have been tinkering with climate data for about the past 15 years. Thanks to the folks at the Swift Current, Sask. federal ag research station, I now have complete monthly temperature and precipitation data from 1886 to 2023. That adds five years to my last summary, so we will now do the update. Weather […] Read more

Field-by-field mapping could improve yield, productivity predictions

U.S. grains: Corn futures edge up, soybeans sag on improving US crop ratings

U.S. livestock: Cattle futures up, hogs mixed

GFM Network News