Darren Sander, owner and operations of Crop Aid Nutrion Ltd. at his company's booth at Ag in Motion.

New soil treatment targets saline patches in fields

A Saskatchewan company’s product focuses on water flow through the soil, offering an alternative to gypsum and organic amendments

Crop Aid SS is a Saskatchewan-made spray that’s intended to help farmers manage saline soils by leaching salts away from the root zone.



alberta farmland and wind turbines

Benchmarking soil health in Alberta

Researchers at the Chinook Applied Research Association’s Soil Health Lab have adapted a soil health assessment from Cornell University to evaluate Alberta soils

Part 2 of 2: New analyses provide test results with handy scores that assess soil using a simple format, and make it easy for Alberta farmers to spot where an intervention or practice change might have the biggest effect.

alberta farmland and wind turbines

Measuring the components of healthy soil in Alberta

Part 1 of 2: Soil health more than just its chemical properties, according to the Alberta Soil Health Benchmark Report

The data Prairie farmers get from chemical analysis of soils are necessary to develop a field fertility program — but as an Alberta program shows, those data don’t tell the whole story needed to assess soil health.


Trying to keep up: Soil science seminars can feel like a firehose of information, but somewhere in the complexity, there’s a story waiting to be told. PHOTO: Don Norman

Decoding the science behind the story

Reporter’s Notebook: The more I do this, the more familiar the terms become

Some days my job becomes a bit like codebreaking: I have to take the specialist language of science and translate it into something useful, not just readable.




Tenuta can often be spotted at field days in a Hawaiian shirt, enthusiastically presenting new soil research or chatting with farmers.

Researcher focuses on farmers’ real-world problems

Groundbreaker: Mario Tenuta’s love of learning, and desire to be useful, have driven his career as a soil scientist

You’ve probably seen Dr. Mario Tenuta at an ag field day or a soil seminar. He’s the guy in the Hawaiian shirt, having a good time giving a presentation about new soil research or talking to farmers about what’s going on at their farms. Tenuta is a tenured soil ecology professor at the University of […] Read more


soil in farm field

Digging deep for soil phosphorus

Field Notes: P movement is limited in soil, particularly under dry soil conditions

As my PhD work conducted over the past four years reaches its completion, I’ve reflected on my master’s work more in the last few months than I’ve done since completing it nine years ago. In this column, I would like to highlight a few take-home messages from that work. The 4Rs of phosphorus (P) stewardship […] Read more

alberta farmland and wind turbines

Soil health benchmarking survey in Alberta

Researchers at the Chinook Applied Research Association’s Soil Health Lab have adapted a soil health assessment from Cornell University to evaluate Alberta soils

Every farmer wants “healthy soil.” But what does that mean, and how do they know if they have it? “The first question I ask when I’m speaking to farmers is, ‘How many of you have done soil testing?’” says Yamily Zavala, PhD, soil health lab manager and soil health and crop management specialist at the […] Read more