Crop Management
The demise of tillage sparked the rise of dandelions. The tap-rooted pest has become a problem for producers in regions where it was once found in pastures, alfalfa fields and roadside ditches. The weed, formally known as taraxacum officinale, survives cursory cultivation by discers and usually succumbs only to a deeply set sweep followed by […] Read more
Crop Management
Weed of the Week: dandelion
Western Producer Crop Report – for Jun. 16, 2011
MANITOBA SOUTHWEST Unseeded acres abound A few days of good weather helped farmers with workable fields get a lot done, but millions of acres of farmland remain unseeded. Generally minor but continual showers have stopped progress on much land, not giving farmers a chance to get out with machinery. Progress is greater north of the […] Read more
Pulse merger creates new player
Two family-owned icons of the western Canadian pulse processing sector have merged to become one of the biggest pulse processors in the country. Roy Legumex Group of Companies of St. Jean Baptiste, Man., and Walker Seeds Ltd. of Tisdale, Sask., have united to form Legumex Walker Inc., a pulse and special crops processor and merchandiser […] Read more
Manitoba lobbies against end to single desk
Manitoba’s provincial government has launched an advertising campaign to oppose the federal government’s vow to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board’s marketing monopolies. Backed by a number of members of the CWB’s board of directors, representatives of the Port of Churchill and the president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, premier Greg Selinger demanded June 13 that the […] Read more
Farmers desperate to seed
POPLAR POINT, Man. – A trip through many parts of the Manitoba countryside is a journey through farmer hell, with big weeds, unseeded and late seeded fields and refugee cattle making the landscape an ugly quilt of bad-looking farmland. Super-saturated soil has hobbled farmers across large parts of the province since spring thaw, and the […] Read more
Clock ticks on China’s canola import rules
The anniversary of the one year extension on Canadian canola seed’s restricted access to China is fast approaching. The Canola Council of Canada announced a year ago that China had agreed to extend access for canola seed imports for another year under a certain set of restrictions designed to keep blackleg disease out of the […] Read more
Drought tolerant canola headed for field trials
Another milestone in the development of juncea canola takes place this year when Viterra conducts field trials on its first generation of Xceed hybrids. Juncea canola is one of the world’s first drought tolerant crops and is well suited to the Prairies’ brown soil zones. However, the crop has experienced a yield drag compared to […] Read more
Invention springs from seeding necessity
Manitoba farmer Barry Reimer spent a sleepless night in late May worrying about how he was going to seed his soaked fields. Inspiration arrived somewhere between the tossing and the turning, and five days later he was seeding and fertilizing canola in one pass, all from a tractor seat. “A broadcast spray boom is what […] Read more
New advances in herbicides require further knowledge
ROSTHERN, Sask. – Farmers must be more educated than ever about what they put in their spray tanks, says a University of Saskatchewan researcher. Speaking at a direct-seeding demonstration at the Seager-Wheeler historic farm near Rosthern, Ken Sapsford said producers will have more varieties to choose from as they decide what herbicides to apply to […] Read more
Shelves bare at Valmar as mud continues
This year’s muddy conditions have emptied the shelves at Valmar. “Guys in really wet areas are desperate to get their hands on some kind of Valmar for their canola, and I have to tell them we’re sold out,” said Jim Gladstone, manager of the equipment manufacturer from Elie, Man. “This morning (May 24) I had […] Read more
