Winter cereals gain in popularity as durum production grinds to a halt in areas once considered safe from fusarium head blight
Fields that once grew profitable durum no longer do so because of fusarium, leaving some to speculate that prairie durum may go the way of the dodo bird and the dinosaur. Plant breeding and fungicide application can do only so much in the war on fusarium. As a result, strategic rotation has become an increasingly […] Read more
Ron Lyseng
Stories by Ron Lyseng
Winter cereal supplies expected to be good this year
Farmers should be able to find new hybrid fall rye varieties, and winter wheat seed is said to be plentiful
Many farmers have already started seeding fall rye and winter wheat, while other growers are on the phone trying to find seed. Red Merryweather of FP Genetics says producers looking for Bono or Brasetto seed, the new hybrid fall ryes from FPGenetics, should be able to acquire them easily this month. Harvest in his seed […] Read more
Putting space ships to work on Earth
Deciding when to turn on the tap and by how much is a major management decision for farmers who irrigate. Teams of hydrologists, soil scientists, agronomists, software specialists and aerial imagery analysts help producers determine the optimal days and water volumes that should be applied to each area of an irrigated field. One such company […] Read more
Talking about weather goes to whole new level
On-farm weather stations have evolved from conversation pieces to genuine management tools with each generation able to sense and log more factors more precisely. RainWise, the New England company that’s been building weather stations for 40 years, has just introduced its new solar powered AgroMET station. The company, which is working with climatologists at Cornell […] Read more
Building the rain gauge of the future
A Star Wars style satellite, antique airplane and a flock of ground truthers seek to improve weather forecasts
CARMAN, Man. — Hitch a high tech NASA satellite to a 1930s DC3 aircraft, add 10 teams of students and scientists prowling southern Manitoba fields and you’ll have a highly accurate climate prediction model. The project encompasses organizations such as NASA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Manitoba. It’s called Soil Moisture […] Read moreTake a peek at Delta track
SANFORD, Man. — Delta owners vow they’ll never go back to their previous tractor, just as Quadtrac owners once swore off going back to round rubber. Versatile started with the premise that simply bolting triangular track sets to its big four wheel drive machines wasn’t good enough to make the cut. It felt that the […] Read more
Hay day flies high in the skies
The Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association’s Green Gold program has a new tool to help growers determine their best hay day — unmanned aerial vehicle imaging. Now in its 21st year, Green Gold provides timely information to MFGA members so that they can maximize their hay quality by harvesting at the best time. Hay day […] Read more
PhenoCart — Fitbit for plants eager to show off
Developing a new crop variety is a tedious, time-consuming task. It’s long hours under a hot sun, clipboard in hand, bent over tens of thousands of plants in the plots, looking for the best one. Phenotyping is definitely not fun in the sun. Making subjective comparisons of thousands of strains opens the door to human […] Read more
Versatile marks half century of prairie power
The Winnipeg company celebrated the milestone with an anniversary limited edition 550 h.p. Delta Track
The era of truly simple, low-cost four-wheel-drive tractors has come to a close, but Canada’s only tractor company continues that tradition in the modern world. The first Versatile four-wheel-drive tractors coughed to life in 1966 at a newly constructed factory in Winnipeg. With a sticker price of less than $10,000, the bright red D100 diesel […] Read more
Speed bumps seed dump
PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Man. — High speed and bad combine settings might mean farmers are dumping thousands of dollars worth of seed on the ground, as some growers saw last week at CanolaPalooza in Portage la Prairie, Man. Seed loss cost can hit $2,360 on a 160 acre field if the operator is running only […] Read more
