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Tag Archives Soils and Crops

This is the Birch Hills area as shown by Google Earth on May 10, 2017. The town is in the bottom left area. 
Clearly, much of this area is not good land in wet years without some slough consolidation.
Columns

Les Henry: Crop Week offers a good mid-winter break

Saskatoon’s annual winter farm show offers a chance to see old friends and new tech

By
The highlight of cold, dark January is Crop Week/Crop Production Show that takes place in Saskatoon each year. One of the things that takes place during that week is the annual reunion of the Saskatchewan Agricultural Graduates Association (SAGA). The saga of SAGA SAGA formed in 1935 when a few Agros (University of Saskatchewan ag […] Read more
Les Henry’s stubble soil moisture map, as of Nov. 1, 2018
Columns, Crops

Les Henry’s stubble soil moisture map, as of Nov. 1, 2018

There’s more red ink (dry areas) than we’d like to see on this year’s map

By
Each year when I make up this very general map, I keep hoping for a young generation to come along with better technology and smarts to make a better map. I now see a very bright light at the end of the tunnel. My December 12, 2018, article talked about the soil moisture sensor probes […] Read more
Bean and lentil legumes background as a group of assorted fava soy red black beans as a healthy nutrition high fiber food concept as a healthy cooking natural food ingredient.
Columns, Crops

In response to, ‘Cover crops and green manure’

Clearing up a tillage misunderstanding from a previous column

By
It is always a thrill to get letters and book orders from readers. Most letters are complimentary and a joy to receive. But, a recent letter disagreed with ideas in my September column that talked about cover crops and green manure. A phone call cleared up the matter. It was completely my fault for not […] Read more
Soil background
Columns, Crops

Finally, soil moisture measuring meets new tech

A map of soil moisture at freeze-up can give you a good indication of your yield potential

By
Water in the bank is a certainty; rainfall is a probability. Much of what we do in farming is based on probabilities — a game of chance. What are the chances we will get timely rains to keep a crop from withering away to a low yield? What are the chances we will suffer disease […] Read more
The home quarter that my grandfather Jerome Henry broke 100+ years ago grew a 60 bu./acre canola crop in 2017. This photo was taken on July 17, 2017. The land is now owned by my nephew Glen Gates but rented to George Winny from nearby Sovereign, who grew the big 2017 crop. His Dad and I did Boy Scout camps together in the 1950s.
Columns, Crops

Farming from plough to now

From mining the nutrients to zero-till farming, 
with ups and downs on the way

By
As we approach the happy Christmas season let us set aside the latest news and consider the steps that have taken us to this point in our farming endeavors. In Manitoba and southeast Saskatchewan some farming went on in the late 1800s but the big acres of the Palliser triangle were still in prairie grass […] Read more
This Eastonborough Foursquare house was built on the Dafoe, Sask., area farm of Alexander and Mabel Blyth in 1922. The house has a brick veneer which would have been sourced locally.
Columns

Catalogue houses: the Foursquare house

Ordered by mail and delivered by train, catalogue houses helped settle the Prairies

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When our ancestors broke the prairie sod in the Palliser triangle there was no local wood for building houses. Timothy Eaton and his T. Eaton Co. Ltd. to the rescue. The T. Eaton Catalogue was the shopping center for isolated Prairie farms. In 1910 the T. Eaton Co. Ltd. Winnipeg Catalogue provided the first offering […] Read more
Photo 6: This photo was taken on August 23, 2018. On the left is Iver Johnson’s JD S680 combine, with Iver standing. In the middle is Wayne Leonhardt with the grain cart and tractor. On the right is helper Martin Millar on the Block Farm JD S690 combine. This was a very smooth operation, very efficient with no down time.
Columns, Equipment

Combines I have known, Part 3

In the third part of an ongoing series on combines, 
Les Henry goes for the green paint

By
This is No. 3 in an occasional series on combines. When completed, the series will span the 63 years that I have spent running combines. Some years just a few hours, but a bit in each of the years. The first piece included a bit about a Case K2 combine. I did not have an […] Read more
This photo was taken on August 1, 2009. There was great crop growth, from old fashioned methods.
Columns, Crops

Cover crops and green manure

In the Palliser Triangle, cover crops aren’t the answer in a dry cycle

By
The current interest in soil health issues has expanded our thinking and spawned much research and new farm-scale work with many new-to-us plant species. Cover crops are planted in the non-commercial season to add diversity to the mix and juice up the soil organisms that go along with the different plants. In wet years, cover […] 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

By
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
Closeup of a plowed field, fertile, black soil.
Columns, Crops

Carbon: the mega plant nutrient

Nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon dioxide? CO2 is at the heart of crop production

By
When teaching about plant nutrition the first step was to list the various categories of nutrients starting with major nutrients and ending with the micros. For this piece I’ll reverse the order and start with micros. The typical nutrients Micronutrients: Micronutrients are required in small amounts and not often added as a fertilizer. But when […] Read more

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