Michael Raine

The late warming of the Prairies this year has reduced the likelihood of grain spoilage in bins. However, as temperatures rise, threats to stored grain will increase dramatically. “Seeding may be delayed in many regions, but that only means farmers will have less time to worry about protecting stored grain from damage once they get […] Read more

A soil test might tell farmers what their crops will need, but will it pay to fertilize to that level? A new calculator will help provide the answer. Manitoba’s agriculture department will soon offer a spreadsheet calculator that will give producers a place to start when deciding how much nitrogen to apply. The program shows […] Read more

Wayne Smith is an internationally recognized agronomist. His work is sometimes controversial in agronomy circles. Farmers across the globe share the same conviction when asked to finger the main culprit limiting their yields, but an Australian agronomist says they are wrong. “Water isn’t your problem,” Wayne Smith told producers attending an Edmonton agronomy conference earlier […] Read more

It’s an agricultural conundrum – crops need nitrogen but too much too close can be toxic. Granular urea is the most cost effective form of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. Its high level of nitrogen and relatively low costs of production, transportation and storage make it a competitive product for farmers. But if too much of it […] Read more

Farmers may not know it, but since 1875 they’ve been riding the Benner Cycle. Samuel Benner had been a prosperous American farmer until he was wiped out by the commodity market panic and hog cholera epidemic of 1873. In retirement, he created a set of long-term predictions that included grain, hogs, iron, the stock market […] Read more

Automatic darkening welding helmets are among the welding tools farmers have readily adopted. The auto-darkening feature has nearly eliminated the little flashes that make welding trickier for many people. Caleb Krisher of Hobart Brothers, which makes welding equipment, said helmet technology has come a long way in the past 15 years ago. “The equipment has […] Read more

Roger Andreiuk says farmers can effectively move research from the lab to the farm and profit from the experience. “New input products are often testing at the plot scale or even at small field scale, but they aren’t usually tested on your farm, in your soil, in your climate,” said the agronomist with Alberta’s Reduced […] Read more

The greener a green lentil, the more money it commands in the market. Research by producer Blaine Davey of Wilkie, Sask., and his colleagues at the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre has proved there are strong genetic and agronomic factors in producing healthy green lentil samples. “(At the university), we looked at how much […] Read more