Five Q and As on soil testing

Five Q and As on soil testing

Here’s what you need to know to make sure your plants have all the right nutrients

Soil testing will help you give your crop the best possible start. Dr. Jeff Schoenau, soil fertility expert at the University of Saskatchewan, delivered a free webinar on soil earlier this winter. Schoenau had answers to five common questions about soil testing and fertility.



Top 10 weed management practices

Top 10 weed management practices

Herbicide resistant weeds are no longer a novelty, they’re the norm

Hugh Beckie, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, said it’s a challenge to get farmers to implement herbicide-resistance best management practices (BMP) because growers are diverse, and one size doesn’t fit all. But Beckie has found that growers who use BMPs tend to have less herbicide resistance. So, in the spirit of David […] Read more

Eight tips to run your own crop trials

Eight tips to run your own crop trials

Do your own research instead of adapting other people's research to your farm

Every acre can be a research acre, said Nicole Philp to farmers at this years CropSphere in Saskatoon. Farmers interested in testing new products and practices can create powerful data sets with a little co-ordination, said Philp, a Canola Council of Canada agronomist. But how can you make sure you get good data out of […] Read more


soybean field

Get more from your soybeans

Soybean growers should be aware of some agronomy recommendations. Soybeans require a bacteria, Bradyrhizobium japonicum, to create nitrogen-fixing nodules on its roots. The bacteria that forms nodules on soybean roots is not found naturally in soils in Western Canada, so inoculation is necessary. If the plant has poor nodulation, it must rely on nitrogen present […] Read more



Rainfall relieves some dry areas of Sask., but more needed for crops to fill out

Rainfall relieves some dry areas of Sask., but more needed for crops to fill out

Saskatchewan Crop Report for the week ending July 13

Livestock producers now have 32 per cent of the hay crop cut and 38 per cent baled or put into silage, according to Saskatchewan Agriculture’s weekly Crop Report. Hay quality is rated as four per cent excellent, 48 per cent good, 34 per cent fair and 14 per cent poor. Concerns about a potential hay […] Read more

(Bruce Fritz photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Sunflowers look good in field, flat in market

CNS Canada — While many Canadian crops are wishing for more rain right now, one expert sees sunflowers, primarily grown in Manitoba, doing relatively fine for moisture. “There’s no weather worries on sunflowers right now. A lot of the acres went in because it was forecasted to be a very dry summer, but it hasn’t […] Read more



(Bruce Fritz photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Manitoba sunflower acres set to rise

CNS Canada –– An early spring and drier conditions in western Manitoba, together with relatively favourable prices, should lead to an increase in sunflower plantings in the province this year. “Assuming that the southwest won’t be wet this year, we’re expecting that acres will be over 100,000,” said Darcelle Graham, executive director of the National […] Read more