Crop Management
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Organic matter content is an important field management factor because higher levels hold more moisture and nitrogen. “The range of OM within a field can be as much as three percent,” said Marilyn Kot of Green Acres Tech in southeastern Saskatchewan. “That represents a huge variation in the amount of nitrogen holding […] Read more
Crop Management
Agronomists use mapping function to track organic matter
Soil EC data recorder was a Canadian first
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – While Kansas- based Veris Technologies gets the agricultural attention, few people know that a Canadian company was the first to manufacture a soil electrical conductivity instrument. Geonics Limited of Mississauga, Ont., manufactured its first electromagnetic induction geophysical instrument in 1962. It was the EM15, and since then the EM series has become […] Read more
Diagnostic soil tools can be affordable
REGINA — Big-ticket equipment and high-tech imaging shouldn’t be the only tools in a producer’s arsenal, says the president of a leading agronomy company. During a recent training session held near Regina, Elston Solberg showcased easy-to-use and inexpensive diagnostic tools, including penetrometers for measuring soil compaction, a portable pH meter for measuring soil acidity and […] Read more
Western Producer Crop Report – for Aug. 25, 2011
SASKATCHEWAN SOUTH Winds damaged swaths Three percent of the crop in the southeast and seven percent in the southwest has been combined. Another 10 percent in the southwest and 13 percent in the southeast have either been swathed or are ready to straight cut. Winter wheat yields are 35 to 45 bushels per acre. The […] Read more
Credit insurance could broaden market
Imagine you are a pulse crop marketer selling peas in India. Two importers are interested in buying your peas: one you have done business with before and the other is a new company. The new company offers to pay more, but because you don’t know it and worry about the risk of not getting paid, […] Read more
Wheat board producer meetings called biased
The Canadian Wheat Board is under fire for the way it conducted a series of seven producer meetings. Some farmers attending the events said the CWB didn’t allow both sides of the debate to have their say. “The meeting in Regina was really self-promotional propaganda featuring just one side,” said Franck Groeneweg, a grower from […] Read more
Flooding wreaks havoc with WIT profit report
First-half profits at Weyburn Inland Terminal in Weyburn, Sask., are down significantly, due largely to consecutive years of flooding in the company’s core market area and lower-than-normal seeded acreage. WIT announced after tax earnings of $900,000, or 17 cents per share, for the six-month period ending June 30, compared to $3.6 million, or 67 cents […] Read more
Canola producers told to brace for ‘all-time high’ of clubroot
Farmers in central Alberta are urged to be on the lookout for a yield-crushing canola disease after one municipality in the region found record levels of clubroot in canola. Leduc County has been carrying out ongoing inspections in 700 canola fields and found low to high levels of clubroot. “It will be at an all-time […] Read more
Ag Notes – for Aug. 25, 2011
GENOME BC RECEIVES FUNDING The British Columbia government has provided $25 million to Genome British Columbia to support research in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, human health, bioenergy, mining and the environment. The research includes developing and applying new genomics tools that can help beekeepers stop annual colony losses caused mostly by bee-specific infectious diseases and widespread […] Read more
More blight found in Manitoba potatoes
Two more cases of late blight have been confirmed in Manitoba, and the risk of the disease developing in other potato fields is high, says a potato specialist with the Manitoba government. The province says two potato plant samples that were sent to Manitoba Agriculture’s crop diagnostic lab came back positive for late blight Aug. […] Read more
