CHICAGO (Reuters) — U.S. agribusiness conglomerate Cargill Inc. said it will close its Lockney, Texas, feedlot next summer due to shrinking supplies of cattle and high feed costs. The pending closure comes months after the company shut one of its Texas beef packing plants also because of fewer cattle. “Due to the drought-depleted beef cattle […] Read more
Crop Management — page 612
Cargill to close Lockney, Texas, cattle feedlot in summer 2014
Sask crop report
Just three percent of the Saskatchewan crop was still to be harvested as of Oct. 14, according to the weekly crop report. Southwest and west-central regions were 99 percent complete, while northeast and northwest were 98 percent done. In the southeast and east-central areas, rainfall of up to 47 millimetres delayed combining, resulting in completion […] Read more
Wet years unearth need for cultivation
Rutted fields, expanding sloughs | Pro-Till 40 able to mix heavy trash into ground at high speeds
REGINA — There was a time when “till” became a four letter word in Western Canada. In the rural southern prairies, the word kept company with other seldom-heard words such as rain, plow and cash. But now the return of rain has dug up new demand for tillage tools. For three years Paul Degelman’s company […] Read more
Apply lime to upgrade soil
Potatoes are typically grown under irrigation, on sandy soil and with plenty of commercial fertilizer. It’s the perfect setup for severe acidity and a perfect scenario for lime treatment. The three main factors contributing to severe acidity are irrigation, high fertilizer rates and soil with a low pH to begin with, according to independent agronomist […] Read more
Slow release products calm concerns about fall fertilizing
Now that harvest is basically done, growers start to shift their thoughts to fertilizer. There is a lot to think about whether it is pre-buying and storing until next year or fall applying. With most growers going to no-till, the practice of fall fertilizing has seen a major reduction, but the questions still get asked. […] Read more
New WP agronomy columnists
This week, on page 90, we start an agronomy column in The Western Producer called Agronomy Precisely and it will feature two columnists. In fact, they’re so new, we haven’t even got their photos, but we’ll fix that shortly. They will alternate and from time to time might even speak to the same subjects, each […] Read more
Native fruits hold new promise as source of nutrients
Saskatchewan fruit growers may have something new to cheer about. Research at the University of Saskatchewan is shining a light on the benefits of buffaloberry, chokecherry and sea buckthorn. All three native prairie fruit plants flourish throughout the province and are high in nutritional value. As a result, the university is developing a new project […] Read more
New products
Keeping the guards straight Tobin Apparatus has a new solution for bent and broken metal pick-up guards on John Deere round balers and Case IH/New Holland and Agco’s Hesston large square and round machines. Pick-up bands are also available for Deere forage harvesters and New Holland pull-type forage headers. The Tobin pick-up guard is half-inch […] Read more
Sask. harvest ahead of schedule in most recent crop report
Saskatchewan harvest is winding down ahead of schedule. The most recent weekly crop report said 89 percent of the crop had been combined as of Oct. 7 and another eight percent was ready to swath or straight cut. Dry weather through the first part of the week in most areas will have increased the amount […] Read more
Aerial seeded canola worked perfectly for North Dakota farmers
Frustration had become entrenched by late May on Dale Thorenson’s farm near Newberg, North Dakota. Thorenson and his son and nephew thought they wouldn’t seed a crop on their fields because the land was saturated following a late snow melt and heavy rain in May. Unwilling to give up, they decided to aerial seed 1,300 […] Read more
