Soil is meant to be covered, not exposed. That’s the basic premise of “cover crop coach” Steve Groff, a small Pennsylvania farmer who’s dedicated his life to promoting cover crops. In 2015, Groff went digital with his messages and launched a weekly webinar series called Cover Crop Innovators. The webinar covers practical topics, with frequent […] Read more
Ron Lyseng
Stories by Ron Lyseng
Cover crop succeeds and grows in Alta. fields
Andy Kirschenman has subscribed to Steve Groff’s webinar since the beginning. The farmer from Medicine Hat, Alta., said he generally catches it live to make the most of the two-way exchanges. Kirschenman said he’s picked up a lot of information to help his farm, but there haven’t been any great revelations because he had already […] Read more
Roading tire change for Michelin
“Bib” the Michelin Man has just introduced a new tire aimed at farmers who put their tractors on public roads on a regular basis, towing slurry or heavy grain carts. The Michelin RoadBib has a revolutionary new tread design. Instead of a traditional lugged tire, it features 52 blocks with a wide footprint and shallow […] Read more
Optical sorters: higher volume, greater accuracy
Optical colour sorters have been employed in the delicate task of kicking bad seeds out of high-value pulse crops for about two decades. But now they do so much more. “The technology has really advanced in the past five years. They’re bigger and they handle more volume faster than before. The hardware and software are […] Read more
Don’t let trade disruptions ruin your canola
Summer is a dangerous time for grain in the bin, especially canola. And China’s recent rejection of Canadian canola imports seems likely to keep that canola binned up tight, where it’s at a high risk of heating. Some farmers have finished seeding and are preparing for spraying. Others have lots of seed to put in […] Read more
Farmers urged to heed grain sensor readings
On March 14, the recorded temperature of peas in this Saskatchewan hopper bottom bin was -8 C. By May 9, just 54 days later, the Bin-Sense readout had escalated to 48 C. That’s a jump of 56 C in just 54 days. The yellow peas went into the bin at 14 percent moisture and 9 […] Read more
Resist: spray between the rows
Like the plague, herbicide resistance is spreading to more chemistries, more crops and more fields. There’s no magical new herbicide over the horizon to conquer this scourge upon the land. Researchers around the globe are fiercely focused on finding ways to break the hold herbicide resistance has on the world’s farmers. But, with no chemical […] Read more
Hold the beans down boys, here comes the combine
More farmers are trying intercropping for the first time in 2019. Growing two or more crops side-by-side in the same field, at the same time has a number of benefits: More crop cover for a longer time period helps re-duce soil erosion risk. A diverse rotation with more different crops helps break cycles of disease, […] Read more
Frost boils push mineral nutrients to soil surface
We’ve all seen a solid rock that’s been seamlessly broken in two by some invisible force. The movement of rocks and soil are controlled by freeze and thaw events, creating mounds, organizing rock circles and cracking the rocks themselves. These phenomena are macro views of the freeze-thaw cycle that naturally occurs in soil. As demonstrated […] Read more
Vibrator shakes 20 minutes off fill time
Seeding has gone well for Bob Rusk this spring. Last month, he bought a Flexxifinger Vibra-Screen, thinking it would keep his granular fertilizer flowing better so that he would have faster fills. Rusk said last week that the Vibra-Screen works even better than expected. “It’s cut our fill time by more than 20 minutes. We […] Read more
