water use Archives

The role of enhanced efficiency fertilizers in nitrogen fertilization

Crop Nutrition: Maximum crop production cannot be achieved with fertilizers and amendments alone

By Rigas Karamanos April 26, 2025

When trying to enhance crop production with fertilizer, we first need to answer the following questions: What crop yields are possible and what fertility and moisture are required to get there? Crops exhibit different water use efficiency in every part of the Prairies. Water use efficiency is also weather dependent and when combined with best […] Read more

Crops, Features, Weather

How plants conserve moisture in dry conditions

Plants do best when they have a little more moisture than they immediately require

By Janelle Rudolph April 4, 2025

In order to take in carbon dioxide to perform photosynthesis, a plant loses water vapour to the atmosphere as the stomata open. To counteract this, a steady supply of water is needed — hence what’s called the “transpiration paradox.”

Leaving taller standing stubble in a field increases its aerodynamic roughness heading into later fall and winter.

Crops, Weather

Retain your rain

Farmers can get creative to manage water efficiency on Prairie fields

By Don Norman January 30, 2025

Growers often dismiss the unpredictability of precipitation as pure luck — but they can stack the odds in their favour with the right strategies. “There’s a lot of different dynamics going on with the water balance in the Prairies,” says Phillip Harder, research director and hydrologist at Croptimistic Technologies. In addition to summer rains during […] Read more

Shorter tubs protected by an electric fence wire give calves a chance to drink and learn about water.

Cattleman’s Corner, Cow-Calf

Creating calf creep water tubs

Calves get their own water source while their trough is out of order

By Heather Smith Thomas August 7, 2024

This spring we had to find a way to supply water to our baby calves. The pastures where we have our cow-calf pairs in the spring and early summer are fenced away from the creek, to avoid the risk of having a young calf swept away by high water. When we first moved onto this […] Read more

Your fearless columnist tosses the cell for electrical conductivity (EC) measurement into the Montreal River at Saskatchewan Highway 2 in July 2005. Results are recorded in a notebook and all is carried in a briefcase. I have notebooks like that all the way back to 1982. At this location, water EC is 260 uS/cm. In the north, water is mostly low EC; the standard for comparison is the South Saskatchewan River system that runs through Saskatoon, with an EC of about 450 uS/cm at 25 C.

Columns

Water chemistry: a Coles Notes version

Soils & Crops: Conductivity and hardness of water samples show what you can use it for

By Les Henry May 21, 2024

First of all: readers who have Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water can check out pages 124-125 for a detailed discussion of water chemistry, complete with calculations. Water is considered to be the universal solvent because it is capable of dissolving more substances than any other liquid. Therefore, one of the first things we might […] Read more

A view of Oldman River which flows into the Oldman Reservoir, which according to local news media is at its lowest point in 30 years, near Pincher Creek, Alberta, Canada March 15, 2024. REUTERS/Todd Korol

General, Reuters

Alberta municipalities, farmers agree to cut water use as drought persists

By Reuters April 19, 2024

Municipalities and irrigation districts in Alberta have agreed to use less water this summer to combat a severe ongoing drought, the provincial government said on Friday.

General, Reuters

Farmers, oil drillers in parched Alberta brace for water shortage

Drought could cause double-digit declines in Alberta's wheat yields, data suggests

By Reuters, Rod Nickel, GFM Network News March 18, 2024

Drought in Alberta is stretching into its fourth year and farmers and oil companies are planning for water restrictions that threaten production of wheat, beef and crude.

File photo of a storm cloud from the southwestern end of Lake Winnipeg at Matlock, Man. (IanChrisGraham/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Crops, Reuters, Weather

More than half of world’s large lakes drying up, study finds

Gains in Great Lakes, Lake Winnipeg come from runoff, rainfall

By GFM Network News May 18, 2023

London | Reuters — More than half of the world’s large lakes and reservoirs have shrunk since the early 1990s, chiefly because of climate change, intensifying concerns about water for agriculture, hydropower and human consumption, a study published on Thursday found. A team of international researchers reported that some of the world’s most important freshwater […] Read more

General, Weather

Feds open up consultations for sustainable ag strategy

Producer groups to have reps on advisory committee

By Dave Bedard, GFM Network News December 20, 2022

The federal government has enlisted farm groups on the ground floor of consultations toward development of a long-term strategy to “amplify” the adoption and use of sustainable practices in agriculture over the next year. Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Dec. 12 announced the launch of public consultations on strategy development, running from now through March […] Read more

File photo of the bridge to Apex, an outlying area of Iqaluit. (Henry Baillie-Brown/iStock/Getty Images)

General, Reuters, Weather

Iqaluit declares state of emergency over water shortage

By GFM Network News August 13, 2022

Ottawa | Reuters — The northern Canadian city of Iqaluit declared a state of emergency on Friday after scarce rain this year left water levels in the local Apex River at a four-decade low. Iqaluit warned it may not have enough water in its reservoir to sustain its population of about 7,800 when a freeze-up […] Read more

GFM Network News

U.S. livestock: Cattle slip back, hogs gain

U.S. grains: Soy futures post biggest monthly gain in nearly five years on China trade optimism

Farm gate milk price to rise in 2026

Tag Archives water use