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Tag Archives topsoil

Topsoil being removed from a depression area in a soil landscape restoration site in southern Manitoba.
Crops, Features

Restore productivity on your eroded knolls

Landscape restoration, cover cropping, residue redistribution and adjusting crop inputs are some management practices that can help

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The eroded knolls or hilltops common in Prairie farmland are typically the least productive, often yielding considerably less than other parts of a field. Curtis Cavers, an agronomist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada based at Portage la Prairie, Man., says there are ways to boost crop productivity in these problem areas. Cavers provided an assessment […] 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
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
The photo shows this old scribe in his young kid days giving advice to a farmer by phone — a very efficient way to do business back in the day when phones were answered. But, I was only able to help because the #12 Soils Map was right beside my phone. My first question was always, “Where are you from?” Then I could take a quick peek at the map and give a much better answer. Many thought I had the soils map in my head — 
but now the truth comes out.
Columns, Crops

Precision ag Step 1: soil maps

The most important part of precision agriculture is the soil maps of your fields


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My first work on precision agriculture was actually in the 1960s and colleagues had been doing work on the idea before that. Back then it was all about identifying specific soil profile types in a field and trying to determine if their variable properties could be managed differently. Some things were clear: 1. Leached (white […] Read more
Crops, News, Weather

Seeding in Sask. 94 per cent complete, topsoil moisture falling in southern areas

Saskatchewan Crop Report for the week ending June 5, 2017

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Seeding operations are almost complete as 94 per cent of the crop is now in the ground, according to Saskatchewan Agriculture’s weekly Crop Report. This is slightly ahead of the five-year (2012-2016) seeding average for this time of year of 93 per cent. While most producers in the province have wrapped up seeding, those in […] Read more
This is a feed barley crop at Spiritwood, Sask., in 1996, on Gray Wooded loam soil. This crop yielded 80 bu./ac. with no fertilizer in the year of seeding.
Columns, Crops

A convert to long-term experiments

Soil fertility is a long-term prospect that calls for long-term approaches to research

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In my younger days I was not a fan of long-term experiments. Almost all were on Federal Research stations with good soils and plot practices that did not always relate to farm fields. But recent information coming from long-term experiments has changed my mind. Worldwide, the longest experiment is the famous Broadbalk field at Rothamsted […] Read more
The effects of soil compaction
Columns, Crops

The effects of soil compaction

In the first of a two-part series, learn how to diagnose soil compaction in your field

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Soil compaction can be a serious form of soil degradation resulting in decreased crop production and increased risk of soil erosion. Soil compaction can reduce water infiltration into soil, crop emergence, root penetration, crop nutrient uptake and water uptake — all of which can reduce crop yields. Compaction concerns Soil compaction is caused by tillage […] Read more
The zero- to four-inch level is the new topsoil hauled in from the lower land. The four- to seven-inch level is what passed for topsoil for many years. It’s really upper subsoil.
Columns, Crops

Precision ag on Blackstrap farm

Extracting a soil sample to help identify a problem

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My Dundurn farm is rolling Weyburn/Elstow loam with some very eroded knolls. For many years the combine raced over the knolls with little pouring in the hopper. The erosion over the decades was by water, but much of it from annual tillage — especially in the days of summerfallow. A few years ago I acquired a […] Read more

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