Crop Management
Trevor Hadwen says recent snowfall in many parts of the Prairies is welcome but is a “drop in the bucket” when it comes to rebuilding soil moisture reserves. The agroclimate specialist with Agriculture Canada’s National Agroclimate Information Service in Regina says a lot of the winter precipitation to date has been lost to the atmosphere. […] Read more
Crop Management
Short-line manufacturers face obstacles
Copyright laws and digital lockouts prevent implement manufactures from connecting to the electronics of OEM systems
Not that many years ago, getting an implement or attachment to work with a tractor or other major brand machine usually just meant putting compatible ends on hydraulic hoses. However, as technology has advanced, access to and interoperability with the machine’s digital system has become the key consideration — and now stumbling block in some […] Read more
Short-line manufacturers important to western economy
Growing risk to Prairie ag manufacturing is also an economic risk in regions where farm equipment is manufactured
With some major equipment brands limiting access to the digital systems on their machines, Prairie short-line manufacturers who build attachments requiring that connectivity are finding themselves shut out of a growing number of market opportunities. This anticompetitive behaviour by some major original equipment manufacturers has shortlines facing a growing threat to their future viability, which […] Read more
How do Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizers work?
This is the second of a four-part series on advanced efficiency fertilizer. Links to other stories in this series are below. The enhanced efficiency fertilizers (EEF) available to farmers in Canada include urease inhibitors, nitrification inhibitors, dual inhibitors (both urease and nitrification) and polymer coated urea, or slow-release products. Urease inhibitors Urea is the most […] Read more
Fast, accurate variety confirmation
An AI-driven seed recognition technology cuts accurate confirmation time of varietal purity from days to minutes
With enough training, an experienced seed grower or grain inspector can tell the difference among different varieties of barley, although they may need to take a closer look with a 10x lens or even a binocular microscope. But what if they’re stumped, or the variety for a particular sample is unknown? A genetic test will […] Read more
What will it take to realize the promise of digital agriculture?
Canada is positioned to lead in this technology sector but is hampered by scattered funding and information sources
Digital agriculture can help Canada’s farms manage the increasing pressure to produce food, minimize environmental impact and provide a living for farmers, but only if scattered research dollars and talent are brought together. “We need to do a lot better if we want a food system that is more productive, that is more sustainable, and […] Read more
Sask. reservoirs mostly full
REGINA — Saskatchewan’s Water Security Agency said April 3 that it expects most of the province’s reservoirs to fill this spring. The agency said 33 of the 45 major reservoirs are near full or will fill, and six more are between 70 and 90 percent full and still filling. The remaining six that won’t fill […] Read more
Spring ’hopper threat remains high
WINNIPEG — On Jan. 12, the temperature in Saskatoon dropped to – 41 C. The cold snap lasted five days, with night-time lows between -30 and -40 C. In theory, that widespread blast of winter should have killed grasshopper eggs buried in soil across the province, but most of them likely survived. “We don’t have […] Read more
Enhanced efficiency adoption is low
This is the first of four-part series on advanced efficiency fertilizer. Links to other stories in this series are below. They can, in certain circumstances, increase crop yields. They definitely cut greenhouse gas emissions from cropland. Yet many Canadian farmers remain skeptical about Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizers. Emerging research has identified several promising scenarios for where […] Read more
Herbicide resistant weeds creep north into Canada
Weeds know no borders, of course, so when weed trouble or a resistance issue surfaces on the northern U.S. Plains, there’s a decent chance of it turning up somewhere on Canadian cropland sooner or later. “Folks in Manitoba and Saskatchewan will often look south, and we also often look north for the problems our neighbours […] Read more
