wheat plant waving hello

FEED ME: Can well-fed plants fend off diseases and insects?

We examine an Idaho farmer’s program for crop self-defence

Blake Matthews works with agronomist Jared Cook on an intensive cropping program that improves plant health and soil health, reduces pesticide use and somewhat increases profits. We check in with Prairie experts to see how that program’s principles could work in this region.

esn fertilizer

The role of enhanced efficiency fertilizers in nitrogen fertilization 

Crop Nutrition: Maximum crop production cannot be achieved with fertilizers and amendments alone

When trying to enhance crop production with fertilizer, we first need to answer the following questions: What crop yields are possible and what fertility and moisture are required to get there?   Crops exhibit different water use efficiency in every part of the Prairies. Water use efficiency is also weather dependent and when combined with best […] Read more


a handful of granular fertilizer for crops

Rethinking nitrogen efficiency

Tracking nitrogen with stable isotopes offers surprising insights into fertilizer uptake, loss, and management strategies

Understanding how much nitrogen actually gets taken up by plants is key to improving efficiency—both for profitability and sustainability.



Relative to cows, sheep or goats, horses are much more tolerant, but not immune, to the effects of high nitrate levels in feed.

Nitrogen, nitrates and nitrites

Know the names and natures of the nutritious and noxious

Nitrogen goes makes up 80 per cent of the air that we breathe in the form of a very stable N2 gas. In my several years at university I majored in chemistry and my work on nitrogen was intensive, from its biological role to its key role in almost all military explosives. Nitrogen is one […] Read more

oats

Cutting N on oats can pay off, if it’s drier

Potential gain in net revenue must be weighed against opportunity cost

Glacier FarmMedia — It’s possible to make more money from oats by reducing fertilizer rates, according to research done at four sites in Saskatchewan. But like most things in farming, a lot depends on the weather. Less nitrogen equalled more profits in trials done in 2023 because it was a dry growing season. “When you […] Read more


Digging into the cause of poor yields

Digging into the cause of poor yields

Did drought, fertility issues or something else lead to that poor crop? We look at the possibilities

Your client’s crop yielded poorly, and they assume it was due to drought. But you suspect it may be a fertility issue. How can you accurately diagnose the problem? Let us first examine what dry and drought mean. A dry year means reduced crop growth and reduced nutrient uptake, since biological, chemical and physical processes […] Read more

nitrogen nodules on faba beans

Nitrogen-fixing biologicals fall short at field level

Challenges remain for products to achieve their hoped-for potential

Glacier FarmMedia — Dave Franzen is a straight shooter. If he doesn’t know the answer, the North Dakota State University soil scientist will admit it; if he does, he’ll tell you. As an example, in the summer of 2022 researchers from land grant universities across the north-central U.S. studied commercially available, biological nitrogen-fixing products to […] Read more



Many growers equate efficiency with applying their nitrogen "up front" instead of opting for split applications.

Nitrogen use in corn re-examined

Research from the U.S. Midwest sparks controversy, but the solution may be easier

Glacier FarmMedia — When it comes to nitrogen use in corn, it’s always been a question of how much to apply. University of Illinois research on the source of N — that is, how much a corn plant gets from fertilizer and how much from soil — has initiated a considerable amount of debate since […] Read more