Corteva Agriscience Canada stepped into the agricultural biologicals market with the launch of Utrisha N, a nutrient efficiency biostimulant. Biostimulants are a subset of biologicals whose purpose is to trigger a plant’s natural processes to enhance its performance. Kirsten Ratzlaff of Corteva said Utrisha N boosts a plant’s nitrogen efficiency. Corteva does not have any […] Read more
Robin Booker
Stories by Robin Booker
Bacterium converts air nitrogen for plants
Corteva bioproduct aids plants’ nitrogen efficiency in the mid to latter half of the growing season
Corteva Agriscience Canada has stepped into the agricultural biologicals market with the launch of Utrisha N, a nutrient efficiency biostimulant. Biostimulants are a subset of biologicals and trigger a plant’s natural processes to enhance its performance. Kirsten Ratzlaff of Corteva said Utrisha N boosts a plant’s nitrogen efficiency. Corteva does not put a number on […] Read more
Producers might farm-out robotic agricultural tools
Whether it’s a drone in the air, a soil sampler in the field or picking tools of all sorts it’s a service
Agricultural robots have opened the door for more farm operations to be contracted out to service companies. The pace of new robotic-based agricultural platforms being developed and tested on North American fields is accelerating, and many of these companies are targeting a service model for their business plan. Traditional ag retailers plan to get a […] Read more
Bigger, deeper header refines handling
Flexible draper headers have a lot of things to get right when loaded to capacity in tough harvesting conditions
When MacDon requested customer input on updates for its new FD2 FlexDraper, increased efficiency was a common request. “The combines keep getting larger and you have to be able to feed them to the capacity or the load they want to be fed. If you took a header that we built 15-20 years ago and […] Read more
Leveraging stewardship data for end users and markets
Keeping the data straight for every field and crop might be optional for now, but traceability is the next reality
The world’s food system is slowly moving away from the bulk commodity model to one where stories on production techniques accompany products from farmgate to end users. These emerging markets require traceability standards to help differentiate food or fuel in ways that a bulk commodity system for commodities like grain does not allow. Two Canadian […] Read more
Green on brown to green on green, the technology sees the future
Application tools that can recognize what shouldn’t be there and then call it by name before eliminating it
Selective spraying will be an essential tool for prairie farmers in their struggle to keep increasingly difficult weeds in check. Green-on-brown selective spraying that detects and sprays weeds during burn-down applications is already offered by a few companies, while green-on-green applications that target weeds in-crop is only a few years away from being available to […] Read more
Aggressive weed finds its way to Prairies
With up to a million seeds and herbicide resistance to Groups 2, 3, 5, 9 and 27, this new Prairie weed is serious
The most troublesome herbicide-resistant weed in the United States has crossed the 49th parallel. DNA testing has confirmed the presence of Palmer amaranth in samples collected near Carman, Man., in the Rural Municipality of Dufferin. Palmer is among three pigweed species on Manitoba’s tier one noxious weeds list, the others being tall waterhemp and smooth […] Read more
Ag game changing and the intelligence is inside
Artificial intelligence in agriculture is at the technology farmgate with machines that think like farmers
Artificial intelligence is on the cusp of causing a sea change in agriculture that promises to quickly challenge conventional crop-production and farm management techniques. Many components required to build autonomous, smart agricultural equipment for vegetable and grain production in North America are already proven technologies. Sensors including camera, lidar, and radar, as well as components […] Read more
Ag-tech firm makes a move
Vancouver-based Semios expanded its footing in Canadian agriculture with its acquisition of Agworld, a farm management platform. Michael Gilbert, chief executive officer of Semios, said the acquisition makes the company one of the largest independent agricultural technology solutions providers in the world. Semios works with farmers in Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Europe […] Read more
BASF issues rotational restrictions
BASF issued an urgent notice to growers that stated it “will not be supporting canola, durum wheat, and canary seed as follow crops in the 2022 season,” if the company’s new rotational restrictions are not adhered to. The new rotational restrictions are for BASF’s imidazoline-based portfolio including Odyssey, Solo and Viper ADV formulas used in […] Read more
