Crop Management
Western Canadian farmers are poised to harvest a bumper crop if the weather holds, say analysts. Neil Townsend, chief market analyst with FarmLink Marketing Solutions, said there is staggering potential in the fields this year, especially for cereal crops. FarmLink is forecasting record-shattering yields for wheat, oats and barley after conducting a two-week-long, Prairie-wide crop […] Read more
Crop Management
Learning the role of plants’ molecular ‘gatekeepers’
Everything a plant needs to grow must pass through its cell membranes. To do that, it must pass through a sieve of microscopic pores called aquaporins. Now, researchers at the Australian National University have uncovered new information on how this network of “gatekeepers” works. The knowledge could be key to developing food crops with improved […] Read more
Fieldbot is really quite bossy
One field robot runs the show and tells other robots what to do, system manages not just monitors events
Fieldbot is no ordinary ag sensor. It issues orders, turns irrigation pumps on and off, controls fans and feeding equipment in livestock operations, even sends dairy cows into the parlour. Fieldbot can serve as a producer’s eyes and ears, while they’re busy carrying on with the actual work of farming. It will count cattle moving […] Read more
New technology in high output compost spreaders
The trend toward surface-applied granular fertilizer is prompting manufacturers to develop new spreaders, such as the New Leader compost spreader, which debuted at Ag in Motion Discovery on July 21. The spreader is a new design, with only a handful of units sold in the United States so far, and none in Canada. Ag in […] Read more
No real fix to soil salinity but options exist
With more than five million acres at risk to salinity in Western Canada, farmers could do a better job of managing their acres, say some advisers. “It’s a very big deal,” said Lyle Cowell, manager of agronomic services at Nutrien Ag Solutions in northeast Saskatchewan. He and colleague Brianna Lummerding discussed salinity during a presentation […] Read more
Going wider and single choices grow
John Deere recently announced Goodyear Super Single low side wall (LSW) tires can be factory installed on the three largest 8R-Series MFWD tractors: 8R 340; 8R 370; 8R 410. The combination of Goodyear Optitrac LSW1000/40R32 fronts and LSW1100/45R46 rears offers significant traction, flotation and ride quality benefits over the traditional row crop setup with duals. […] Read more
CP Railway’s grain shipping record could be short-lived
Canadian Pacific Railway moved a record 29.5 million tonnes of grain and processed grain products in the 2019-20 crop year, surpassing the company’s previous record for total grain handlings by about 10 percent. That’s a huge accomplishment, according to Joan Hardy, CP’s vice-president of sales and marketing for grain and fertilizer. But the record might […] Read more
Chem-free weeding between rows
Austrian-made inter-row cultivator keeps the steel between the crop with camera guidance and hydraulic hitching
CAMROSE, Alta. — Cultivating barley in July is a farmer’s nightmare. Markus Reyerding has cultivated his barley once, harrowed it a couple times this year and hopes to cultivate some of the parts he missed once more. Reyerding has transitioned 520 acres of their roughly 7,000 acre farm to organic and the interrow cultivator and […] Read more
Corn: low N response; poor after canola or mustard
Results from a three-year study on dryland grain corn agronomics in southern Alberta show little difference in crop response from extra nitrogen application and reduced yields if grown following canola or mustard. Findings were presented July 23 by Gurbir Dhillon and Ken Coles of the Farming Smarter applied research group and by Adrian Moens of […] Read more
COVID-19 and the weather forecaster
COVID-19 is having a significantly negative impact on weather forecasts around the globe. The pronouncement comes from new research published this month in the peer-reviewed American Geosciences Union Journal. The study finds the world lost up to 75 percent of its aircraft weather observations between March and May because the pandemic grounded flights. Commercial aircraft […] Read more
