solubility test

Field Notes: So what about solubility?

While conducting my PhD studies over the past three years, I have been fortunate to do a deep study on phosphorus (P). It is a fascinating nutrient often characterized by a series of seemingly contrasting truths. For example, while it is considered a nutrient essential for all life, it can also act as a pollutant […] Read more




Dry matter intakes, finished weights, average daily gains and gain:feed of steers fed a standard barley-based control diet were not statistically different from those of the steers fed any of the three corn diets in a recent comparison study.

Corn in western Canadian feedlot diets

The production risk still must be bred out of Prairie-grown corn before it can reach its full potential in feedlots

Corn acreage is expanding across Canada. There are about 25 acres of corn for every acre of barley in Ontario and Quebec, where temperatures, day length and moisture allow predictable corn yields and feed quality. There are around eight acres of barley for every acre of corn in the Prairies, although ambitious breeding efforts are […] Read more


canola

How broccoli may give canola traits a bump

Traits from related brassica species may improve canola diversity

Glacier FarmMedia – There’s little doubt that canola is a powerhouse crop. Nationwide, it covered nearly 22.1 million acres last year, more than 99 per cent of it on the Prairies. The Canola Council of Canada puts its economic contribution at nearly $30 billion a year. A University of Alberta researcher, backed by the Natural […] Read more

How should growers and agronomists interpret the gigabytes, even terabytes, of ag data available?

How to deal with the farm data deluge

The growers have all the data, but do they necessarily use it?

Glacier FarmMedia — The launch of the first GPS yield monitors altered the world of on-farm data collection. That was followed by variable-rate technology, precision planting and aerial/satellite imaging. Most growers have now been accumulating data for 20 years or longer — and many have resolved to keep that data in the hopes of finding […] Read more


Honey-brown discolouration of pea roots, characteristic of Aphanomyces euteiches.

Aphanomyces still a stubborn foe

Research offers hope, but proper crop management remains the best defence for today

In today’s bad news/good news ledger of pulse crop diseases, the bad news is there’s still no quick fix for controlling root rot in field peas and lentils. On the good news side, there are management options that help reduce the risk, research is narrowing in on some treatments that may help control the disease, […] Read more