We’ve seen data-driven technology improve the performance of combines, tractors, grain-handling equipment and sprayers. Electronic soil sensors and data-driven technology have finally caught up with tillage and planting equipment. Case IH has released a new AFS Soil Command feature, marking major progress in field mapping capabilities and agronomic research. The company says seed bed sensing […] Read more
Ron Lyseng
Stories by Ron Lyseng
Catching and keeping the elusive phosphorus
What form phosphorus will take in a particular soil depends on the chemistry of that soil. The transformation can do strange things to fertilizer. Soils with a lot of calcium, such as those in eastern Saskatchewan and Manitoba, will force the fertilizer to reside in a form known as calcium phosphates. These alkaline soils vary […] Read more
Bury crop residue or let it lie: no easy answer
The benefits of strategic tillage to incorporate surface residue into the soil where it may do more good is being hotly debated. Proponents of the practice say there are major benefits to be had by moving the organic matter into the soil. Others say they can’t make a definitive decision because they haven’t seen enough […] Read more
Researchers use synchrotron to get new look at nutrient runoff
During the last two decades, phosphorus runoff has been shown to be a main cause of water quality degradation. That has given rise to suggestions that regulations to direct farmers on where and how they can apply phosphorus may be coming. Phosphorus runoff also has an immediate effect on a farmer’s fertilizer decisions. Lake Erie […] Read more
Maestro sings a song of singulation
DUGALD, Man. – Prairie farmers have a half-dozen high-speed planters from which to choose. For Andy Scheurer the selection process was easy. His neighbour bought a Horsch Maestro last year and Scheurer was impressed. For years, the Dugald, Man., producer and his brother, Edgar, had been planting corn, canola, soybeans and sunflowers with a JD […] Read more
Maestro has gentle touch with delicate seeds
DUGALD, Man. — Like a symphony conductor keeping precise meter for the orchestra with his wand, the Horsch Maestro seed metering system precisely conducts the flow of soybean, canola, sunflower and corn seeds. Before launching into the Maestro design process, Horsch engineers studied the many conventional planters already on the market. They saw that most […] Read more
Tools to reduce drift come in many forms, like liquid
There’s more to spray-drift management than nozzle selection, boom height, ground speed and atmospheric conditions. Some producers are adding low-drift adjuvants their tanks. There are a number of reasons farmers are cranking up their drift reduction efforts. Spray drift can damage crops adjacent to the target field. That’s a financial loss when it’s a farmer’s […] Read more
Wind tunnel and lasers help reduce spray drift
If the low-drift adjuvant InterLock really reduces drift, why isn’t it in general use across the Prairies? Spraying specialist and researcher Tom Wolf provides one answer. “The biggest challenge is that Canadian farmers simply don’t have the tradition of using low-drift adjuvants the way American farmers do. Canadian farmers are accustomed to using nozzles, spray […] Read more
Interlock: how it controls fines and big drops
The chemistry behind low-drift InterLock is puzzling. How do they convert those big liquid globs into desirable medium-size droplets, while also amalgamating your misty fines into desirable medium-size droplets? That’s a good question, and one WinField United researchers wish they could answer. Although it’s proven that InterLock does reduce spray drift, the company is continuing […] Read more
CRISPR rolls along with tools breeders use
Why do some individual plants live longer in the field after others died off? Why do some individual plants yield better? Why do some naturally resist disease that destroys others? These types of questions are best exemplified by the history of rust-resistant Selkirk wheat. In 1930, Moseph McMurachy found two heads of rust-free wheat while […] Read more
