University of Saskatchewan Archives - Page 7 of 11

New advances in chickpea breeding

Chickpea breeder Bunyamin Tar’an explains what breeders’ goals in variety development 

By Geoff Geddes January 31, 2017

Farming is all about colours: staying in the black and avoiding the red to keep your business in the pink of health. That’s no small feat, which is why genetic improvement and variety development in chickpeas is needed to keep farmers on the cutting edge and keep those greenbacks coming in. “For any crop you […] Read more

By weight, flax fibres are stronger than steel.

Crops, Features

The future of managing flax fibre

A non-GMO flax variety with reduced stem fibre content is coming down the pipeline

By Jason Heit December 12, 2016

Dealing with flax straw residue has long been a source of headaches for many Prairie flax producers. “While many producers continue to burn it — costing them valuable organic matter, money, and time — producers would prefer to see their flax straw left on the field,” says Wayne Thompson, executive director of the Saskatchewan Flax […] Read more

Weed researchers are studying several options to control herbicide-resistant weeds. Researchers need to test each product or practice alone, and in combination.

Crops, Features

Use diversity to fight resistant weeds

The latest in using integrated weed management tools for hard-to-manage weeds

By Lisa Guenther November 14, 2016

A three-year study in Arkansas has found that a combination of fall management practices and herbicide use are the most effective ways to control herbicide-resistant Palmer amaranth, when combined with a herbicide program. But Arkansas isn’t Alberta. So what can western Canadian farmers learn from this study? More and more often the message in weed […] Read more

This picture of me in my office last month is a little more current, and the computer is a little more modern than in the photo below.

Columns, Crops

40 years of writing for Grainews

Les Henry reflects on his 40 year tenure in the pages of Grainews

By Les Henry November 9, 2016

It is hard to imagine that 40 years have slipped by since I scribbled my first piece for Grainews in 1976. It was “Nitrogen: When, what kind and how much to apply.” Today we would call it the 3 Rs: Right time, right source and right rate. The 4th R, right placement, was yet to […] Read more

Fababean growers should also make sure they don’t plant fababeans adjacent to last year’s fababean, pea, or lentil fields.

Crops, Features, Pulses

Yield-robbing fababean diseases

If you’re putting fabas in the ground, be ready to manage these common diseases

By Lisa Guenther November 3, 2016

Farmers with aphanomyces-infested fields are faced with a tough decision. Stretch the rotation between susceptible pulse crops to six or eight years, or drop them altogether? Some farmers are opting for less susceptible pulses, including fababeans in moist areas. Of course, fababeans could be vulnerable to disease as well. Here are the foliar diseases fababean […] Read more

This is my good neighbour Iver Johnson with his 9770 and MacDon header cutting peas on the farm of another good neighbour Curtis Block near Dundurn, Sask., on August 16, 2016. The crop yielded 50 bushels per acre of of beautiful white peas. The MacDon header is a real cutting machine and Iver made good time. Curtis and Iver work together and it is a great thrill for this old fossil to watch it all happen. During harvest, Iver traded up to an S 680, so now they have two S 680s at work.

Columns, Crops

Potashium: fertilizer mergers

In the wake of announced mergers, a look at the history of Prairie fertilizer

By Les Henry October 28, 2016

The recent proposed merger of Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan and Agrium has generated much discussion about the merits or pitfalls. I have little knowledge of the backroom dealings of huge corporations but am uneasy about companies becoming too large and competition dwindling. The final decision will be up to the Government of Canada Competition Bureau […] Read more

Crop Diagnostic School organizers seeded plots to demonstrate the impact of different treatment on plant growth. Plots were planted with or without inoculant, with or without nitrogen, and one plot had inoculant, nitrogen, and phosphorus. This photo of peas is with no inoculant, no nitrogen. (see more photos at bottom of page)

Crops, Features, Pulses

The basics of pulse nodulation

Nodulation 101: how pulse crops work with bacteria to fix their own nitrogen

By Leeann Minogue October 25, 2016

At Saskatchewan Agriculture’s Crop Diagnostic School at Swift Current in July, a lot of the in-field real estate was devoted to plots of lentils and peas. Organizers had seeded plots of both crops with and without nitrogen, and with and without inoculant. These plots gave Garry Hnatowich, research director at Saskatchewan’s Irrigation Crop Diversification Corporation […] Read more

The Canadian Light Source, a synchrotron housed at the University of Saskatchewan. The synchrotron is a light source that scientists use to study materials at the molecular level. Researchers have studied everything from fusarium head blight to biomedical science with the synchrotron.

Livestock, News

PHOTOS: Scenes from a farm writers’ tour

Canadian Farm Writers' Federation visits the University of Saskatchewan

By Lisa Guenther October 7, 2016

Synchrotrons, robotic milkers, pill cameras oh my! Grainews‘ Lisa Guenther had plenty to see and do during a recent tour at Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation awards. Have a look at some of the many modern technologies she and other agricultural journalists saw when they toured facilities at Canadian Light Source and the University of Saskatchewan’s vet centre and […] Read more

Crops, Features, Forages

Forages and grasses for marginal land

Permanent cover crops can increase fertility in "problem soils" over time

By Julienne Isaacs September 26, 2016

Jeff Schoenau has a word for agricultural areas currently in annual production that fail to deliver a return on expensive inputs: “heartache land.” It’s better known as “marginal” land, and it can be defined as land with soil that has limitations including poor water-holding capacity and water availability to roots due to sandy texture or […] Read more

Hogs, Livestock

Field testing underway on Canadian PED vaccine

By Grainews Staff, GFM Network News August 22, 2016

Field testing is underway and a corporate partner on board for development of a made-in-Saskatchewan vaccine to protect pigs against porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED). The University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac) said Monday its prototype vaccine, first announced last year, has moved into field testing in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Manitoba […] Read more

GFM Network News

Canadian Cattle Association welcomes reopening of Chinese market to Canadian beef

Klassen: Feeder market near historical highs

Big oat crop in 2025/26 pointing to less acres next year

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