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An autosampler is one of the devices used to analyze soils.
Crops, News

Soil tests more valuable than ever

This is the year you might see a big payback from spring soil sampling

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Oftentimes, finding the right formula for applying fertilizer can be a delicate balancing act for farmers. Apply too much or in the wrong place, you’ve wasted some money. Apply too little or not where it’ll benefit most, and you can lose money by failing to maximize your yield potential. And as soil fertility expert Don […] Read more
Manitoba Ag soil management specialist Marla Riekman says soil compaction can limit yields and have an indirect effect on crop development.
Crops, News

Soil compaction could squeeze your yields

A look at the direct and indirect effects of compaction in your fields

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For years, soil compaction wasn’t something Jeff Hamblin gave a lot of thought to. The Manitoba producer had heard about how the seasonal freeze-thaw cycle in the Red River Valley and elsewhere in the Prairies acted to naturally alleviate farmland soil compaction, but it wasn’t until he started investigating some problem areas in his fields […] Read more
Three common soil compaction mistakes
Crops, Features

Three common soil compaction mistakes

Avoid these missteps to keep compaction from getting worse

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With the advent of mechanized agriculture, farms became a great deal more productive than they were in times past. However, the large machines that ply farmers’ fields today can be hard on the soil and cause issues with compaction. Our cover story of this issue of Grainews provides some suggestions for preventing or reducing soil […] Read more
Colten Bamford in a stringer tractor laying tile during a project on a farm near Pilot Mound, Man., in September 2020.
Crops, Features

The value and benefits of tile drainage

Here’s how this practice can make your farm more profitable

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Installing drainage tile on farmland comes with a hefty price tag, costing anywhere from $900 an acre up to $1,400 an acre or more by some estimates. Like for any large capital expense, producers need to weigh the decision carefully before moving ahead with this kind of project. Ultimately it comes down to dollars and […] Read more
Lynne Schoenau beside a front-end loader depositing a bucket full of topsoil taken from a slough onto a Rebuilding Productivity in Eroded Knolls research plot in May 2020.
Crops, Features

Move soil to where it’s needed most

Landscape restoration can restore productivity on eroded knolls and hilltops

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You could say it’s an old idea that’s new again. The idea is taking topsoil from where it has accumulated in low areas and putting it on badly eroded knolls or hilltops to increase the productivity of a field. University of Manitoba soil scientist David Lobb maintains that’s something farmers in hilly regions of China […] Read more
Should you till after a drought?
Crops, Wheat & Chaff

Should you till after a drought?

Q & A with an expert

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Q: What factors should be considered with fall tillage following a drought? A: Fall work might include tillage operations for fertilizer and herbicide applications. Other tillage operations might include vertical tillage for residue management and tillage to break up surface compaction. The question after a drought is, “Should I till?”  Many parts of Western Canada […] Read more
No-till or zero-till systems are generally viewed as the best prevention against tillage, wind and water erosion.
Crops, Features

How to protect and save your topsoil

Erosion can be a problem even in zero-till fields. Here are some strategies to stop soil loss

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Tillage and not wind or water is the biggest source of soil loss on farmers’ fields. David Lobb, a soil scientist at the University of Manitoba, says for decades people mistakenly thought the eroded knolls or hilltops in fields were caused mostly by wind. “What causes the severe soil loss on hilltops is tillage erosion, […] Read more
Drone image of a tile drainage project in northeast Saskatchewan. The tile drainage was installed over six quarter sections to address issues related to side hill sweep, high water tables and soil salinity.
News

When is tile drainage a good fit?

If your farmland has a high water table, floods frequently and suffers from salinity issues, odds are it can benefit, if there’s somewhere the water can go

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After a two-day downpour drowned out 50 acres of canola last year, Dustin Williams decided it was finally time to do something about a field that had been plagued with paltry crops. “It just rotted out,” says Williams, who also grows wheat, oats, soybeans and edible beans on his farm near Souris, Man. It was […] Read more
In both wheat and barley, boron deficiency causes the unfertilized cereal grain flowers to open up just like open pollinated rye. The consequences of deficiencies are failure to set seed, as in canola and wheat, and, in barley, the open, exposed cereal flowers can have very high levels of ergot.
Columns, Crops

Bring on the boron

Boron deficiency can cause failure to set seed and ergot infection

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Over the last few years in the Prairies, there has been something of a resurgence of interest in boron. This micronutrient is critical for normal plant growth, particularly crop maturity, and water balance — and is a key factor in seed set and crop yield. In man and animals, this micronutrient is essential for weight […] Read more
It was Yamily Zavala’s enthusiasm and commitment to the idea and the support of local farmers, businesses and other institutions that made the CARA Soil Health Lab a reality. Zavala studied and worked in Venezuela, where she was born and raised, and later earned a PhD in soil and plant nutrition from Cornell University. She has spent a good part of her working life studying the soil ecosystem.
Crops, Features

Soil studies just for the “health” of it

Alberta lab teaches farmers to be soil health investigators

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[UPDATED: Oct. 6, 2021] Farmers spend a lot of time working in and on the soil. As the holder of crop nutrients and, hopefully, water, soil is literally the foundation for growing crops, although under extremely dry conditions, it may seem like just so much dirt. But aside from what a soil analysis might tell […] Read more

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