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Tag Archives Soil salinity

laying tile
GrowPro

Understanding tile drainage

Tiling can be a good solution for fixing multiple problems, but it can also be complex to install, and costs vary widely depending on the farm. Make purchasing decisions easier by doing your homework first.

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Removing excess water is the big payoff for tile drainage. Submerged fields and saturated soils can slash yields, cause salinity problems and even spell the loss of the entire crop, if it’s bad enough. However, it is not an inexpensive fix, nor is it a simple solution, and it won’t work for every farm. That’s […] Read more
heavy rain in manitoba 2024
Crops, Features, Weather

Moving from dry to wet

Improved moisture conditions can mean different strategies

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Farmers in Western Canada can breathe easy. Rains across most of the Prairies this spring have gone a long way toward recharging groundwater levels and lowering the risk of drought across the region. “We had an extremely warm winter with lower-than-normal precipitation in most areas,” says Trevor Hadwen, agroclimate specialist for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. […] Read more
seeding near lethbridge 2011
Crops, Features, Weather

Prairie soils’ organic carbon climbing

Data from StatCan and AAFC highlight positive changes made in agriculture since the 1980s

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Glacier FarmMedia — For much of the last five years, the federal government has been setting targets for Canadian farmers to reduce nitrous oxide emissions from fertilizer and methane emissions from cattle. The government has provided funding to help producers cut methane and nitrous oxide emissions from primary agriculture, while constantly beating the drumbeat of […] Read more
saline soils in Manitoba 2024
Crops, Features, Forages

Shop smart when selecting seed for salt tolerance

Soil tests are recommended before deciding how best to manage salinity

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Glacier FarmMedia — Producers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba are asking plenty of questions about how to manage salinity in their soil. Jeff Schoenau, a soil science professor with the University of Saskatchewan, is among those fielding questions, although he says the amount of visible salinity in his province is “normal” for April. “I think probably […] Read more
As picturesque together as they may be, onions and garlic should be kept in separate areas while growing in the garden.
Columns, Practical Tips

More on Prairie vegetables and fruits

Part 6 of a series: Let’s look further at what grows well on the Prairies — and when it doesn’t, why

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In previous issues I dealt with potatoes and the cabbage family of garden vegetables, but perhaps I should also take a look at all and any successfully grown Prairie vegetable crops. To do this, I should list all vegetable crops into related categories, as in the table shown here, so we can more clearly plan […] Read more
Tile drains are perforated plastic pipes installed below the crop rooting zone, used to reduce the depth of shallow water tables in imperfectly and poorly drained areas of a field. This pipe has a filter sock to prevent sediment from getting into the tile system.
Crops, Features

Make it drain: Is tile right for your fields?

A producer and an agrologist consider whether tile is worth your while

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Tile drainage may be the best tool in the toolbox to manage saline soil in fields, a southwestern Manitoba farmer told an audience at the recent Ag Days farm show. Aaron Hargreaves, who co-owns Harwest Farms south of Brandon, said he and his four partners have struggled with soil salinity on their farm since they […] Read more
Larry Luba (left) and Paul Bullock with the Mobile drill. At the start, 45 feet was all of the augers we had, but before long a 75-foot hole was the first order of business at a new site.
Columns, Crops

Les Henry: The soil salinity story

How it all happened

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Over the years, I have found readers like to hear about “how it all happened.” Sure, the results and how the results can direct crop practices is important. For soil salinity, our results have been communicated broadly for decades and practices have changed, but, in this piece, I will let you know how it all […] Read more
This well data can be interpreted as a 30-year net cumulative drought from 1975 to 2005.
Columns, Crops

Les Henry: On salty ground

We’ve come full circle in the soil salinity cycle

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This topic was not on the to-do list for this winter. Soil salinity is a very hot topic right now and many farmers are concerned they will have no land to farm if it carries on like this. The last time I remember such concern about soil salinity was during the late 1970s and early […] Read more
Les Henry: Soil salinity and tile drainage
Columns, Crops

Les Henry: Soil salinity and tile drainage

Can investing in tile drainage make your Prairie soil less saline and more profitable?

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The idea for this subject came from a recent phone call from a farmer in west-central Saskatchewan. He was considering the purchase of a piece of land that was priced below recent sales but did have salinity problems. He was wondering about the feasibility of tile drainage to fix the problem and make the land […] Read more
This is the slough where the salt water changes shown in the table were measured. This photo was taken on July 29, 2013. The water level is now much lower.
Columns, Crops

Water monitoring: dull but necessary

Keeping track of all of the numbers is still necessary for decision making

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Long-term monitoring of agricultural and environmental conditions and practices has been an important function of government agencies. It has been my experience in recent years that a lot of important monitoring functions have been reduced in scope or discontinued. In this column, I’ll describe a few examples of good monitoring and show the importance of […] Read more

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AGCanadaTV: In case you missed it; your national ag news recap for July 11, 2025

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