Colour brings a premium, but wrinkles and sprouts can quickly downgrade a crop and wipe out any potential gains
Harvest season is often a race against time and for lentil growers looking for optimum quality, timing is everything. Seedcoat colour, particularly for green lentils, is a quality factor that may earn a premium, but obtaining that premium depends on, yes, timing. Seeding early, using varieties that retain colour better and paying attention to disease […] Read moreCrops — page 2
New navy bean designed for Sask. fields
A navy bean that offers better yield, shorter season, and higher pod height is coming on stream just in time for farmers to take advantage of a push to increase irrigated acres in Saskatchewan. Ken McDougall said the bean should appeal to farmers that have been reluctant to grow dry beans due to the challenges […] Read more
Keeping ahead of kochia can be a challenge
Managing the tough, adaptable weed takes all the tools that are available in farmers’ integrated pest management toolkit
It is possible to reclaim fields where herbicide-resistant kochia has the upper hand, but it takes long-term planning for crop and herbicide rotations, as well as patch management. Group 2 resistant kochia was first found on the Prairies in the late 1980s and within two decades it spread across the region. “That type of resistance […] Read more
Pampered pets provide profitable market for pulses
As Fido and friends have moved from the doghouse to the people house, pet nutrition has been elevated to big business and big opportunity for pulse producers. “There has been an emergence of high-quality pet food products,” said Colin Young of Mid-West Grain near Moose Jaw, Sask. “The pet has moved from being an animal […] Read more
Read the label to keep your doggo healthy
When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration raised concerns about pulse-based dog foods in 2018, it put a damper on the market. The formulations were associated with increased incidence of dilated cardiomyopathy or enlarged heart, a condition that, left untreated, results in a dog’s heart failure and death. The chief candidate as a cause is […] Read more
Clashing visions of Mexico’s GMO corn ban cloud impact
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (Reuters) — A clash at the top of Mexico’s agriculture ministry over the scope of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s push to prohibit genetically modified corn has cast uncertainty over the industry. If liberally interpreted and successfully implemented, the new rules could ban imports of GM corn by 2024, ending a dependence […] Read more
Sask. soil moisture levels come up short
More than nine out of every 10 acres of cropland, pasture and hayland in Saskatchewan are either “short” or “very short” on topsoil moisture, according to the province’s latest provincial crop report released earlier today. In the crop report for the week ending July 19, Saskatchewan Agriculture said the province’s crops remain “extremely stressed from […] Read more
Greenfeed and silage needed in Manitoba
There’s an abundance of poor-looking crops across Manitoba this summer. Many cereal and oilseed crops are short with thin stands and low yield potential because of a drought that stretches back to the fall of 2019. That problem, though, represents an opportunity to help livestock producers in the province who are facing a shortfall of […] Read more
Hybrid wheat makes a splash
Hybrid wheat is finally making a splash after decades of dipping a toe in the water. Syngenta’s first four X-Terra hybrid wheat varieties are on the road to commercialization in France. Two of them could be registered in the fall of 2021, according to a translation of the company’s French press release. “These varieties mark […] Read more
Writing on the wall for prairie crops
Crunch, crunch, crunch — that is the sound of parched prairie crops burning to a crisp under an intense summer heat wave that continued to bake western Canadian crops this week. It might also describe the financial situation that some farmers will face this year as yield and income prospects dwindle quickly and the full […] Read more
