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Tag Archives Soils and Crops

Figure 5. A crop of Herta, an old two-row barley variety, in northeastern Saskatchewan’s Carrot River valley, with potassium added at left.
Columns

Potash fertilizer: Time for another look

Expect consequences if we keep hauling away more K than we apply

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When the three Prairie provinces established provincial soil test laboratories in the 1960s, that was the start of a real advance in learning about potassium (K) as an essential plant nutrient. Until then it was not much of an issue, as many experiments showed no field crop response. With many thousands of farm field soil […] Read more
man wearing a hard hat in a wheat field
Columns

Grainews columnists I have known

Part 1 of an intermittent series. In this instalment: Alf Bryan

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Younger readers may not know how Grainews got started. The first edition was in 1975 and the publisher was United Grain Growers (UGG). UGG was a farmer owned grain company with shares – it was not a co-op. The first editor was John Clark and he recruited active farmers to write it as it was […] Read more
les henry's soil moisture map 2023
Columns, Crops

A new year, a new soil moisture map

Let's take a Prairie-wide view of soil moisture at freeze-up in 2023

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To make a soil moisture map, you need to understand the soil moisture constants: saturation, field capacity, wilting point and plant-available water. Saturation (Sat) is when all soil pores are filled with water — in other words, the water table. Until recently we did not consider the water table to be high enough to provide […] Read more
A chickpea and flax intercrop mix on Colin Rosengren’s farm at Midale, Sask.
Columns, Crops

Cover crops: enough already

The benefits are often 'blown up' while the challenges are understated

By
Cover crops is a topic with a lot of ink spilled in many farm publications in recent years. Some scribblers seem to imply that a farmer is a laggard and an environmental hazard if she/he is not using cover crops on a regular basis. Cover crops actually include a wide variety of cropping sequences, and […] Read more
‘So what if cows eject a bit of methane out both ends. What in the name of common sense do climate alarmists think the 60-million-plus buffalo did when they roamed freely on the open Plains up until the late 1800s?’ – Les Henry.
Columns, Crops

Les Henry: Sequestering carbon with grass crops

The amount sequestered in the soil is significant

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Carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere and organic matter (carbon) in our soils are topics of great current interest. Two big questions that take up much ink these days are: 1) how can we emit less CO2 with farming practices and 2) how can we sequester more carbon (C) in our soils to maintain high […] Read more
These sloughs with salt rings are near Conquest, Sask. Shallow (25 to 100 feet) glacial aquifers are the source of the pressure that prevents downward flow of water to drain the slough. The constant upward pressure maintains a high water table even in dry periods when evaporation is busy concentrating the salts.
Columns

Les Henry: Sloughs and ‘bathtub’ salt rings

Some sloughs have rings, some do not — why?

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Sloughs (polite name is potholes) are widespread on the Canadian Prairies and particularly in Saskatchewan, which has a great depth of glacial deposits. The sloughs catch much of the snowmelt and runoff from summer rains. If the water in the slough is the sole cause of salt rings, then all sloughs should have them. Artesian […] Read more
File photo of an old-school hand-operated pump on a rural Alberta property.
Columns

Digging wells and finding water

Where to find the information you need before digging

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Unfortunately, by the time this issue hits your mailbox, many farmers will have the slim pickings of 2023 in the bin or bales. It has been especially brutal for cattle folks who have little hay to bale and face the awful decision of downsizing herds, including the loss of genetics built up over many decades. […] Read more
This photo was taken in 1946 near Saskatoon, Sask. The telephone poles were barely visible.
Columns, Crops

Les Henry: Gone with the wind. Soil erosion by wind mostly history in the Prairies

Soils and Crops: We need to let society know

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Our grandfathers broke the rich prairie sod in the early 1900s. Even then, power and machinery were available to keep the soil free of weeds in the fallow year and pulverize the soil in the process. Serious wind erosion started soon after cultivation, but the “dirty thirties” are best known for land destruction that sent […] Read more
Les Henry: Climate change in our neck of the woods
Columns, Crops, Weather

Les Henry: Climate change in our neck of the woods

We have much more to fear from cold than warm

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Regular readers may recall my Jan. 21, 2020 column that showed monthly temperature data for Swift Current, Sask., from 1886 to 2018. That was followed by my March 24, 2020 column that included sites from North Dakota, which provided the same conclusions. Weather is the day-to-day, month-to-month and year-to-year conditions that we experience. Climate is […] Read more
A typical brome grass field of the many I drive by on the way to Dundurn Farm. In wet years, there are many bales and in dry years only a few bales. The rain or soil moisture is always needed but if fertility is missing, wet years become ordinary years not high-yield years.
Columns, Crops, Hay, Pasture

Les Henry: New wrinkles when fertilizing grass crops for hay and pasture

One quarter section of fertilized grass could give the same yield as five quarters of “cut what is there”

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There are many old grass stands that are mainly brome grass and serve as hayfields with occasional grazing. Many hayfields have never seen a kernel of fertilizer. Perhaps this piece will start folks thinking and will lead to a change in practice. There are many old reports that deal with the topic. The two main […] Read more

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