CARMAN, Man. – Manitoba Agriculture specialist John Heard found an oddity in a corn plot west of Carman. “We would never see this in a field,” he said of the snorkel corn roots. “I called a corn specialist I know in Ontario to ask about it. They grow experimental corn in maximum yield studies with […] Read more
Production — page 113
Snorkel corn a rare phenomenon
Consider soil temperature to estimate seeding dates
CARMAN, Man. – “You can’t change the weather but you sure can change the sails.” That’s a line from an old sailing song. Had it been a farming song, it may have gone, “You can’t change the weather, but you sure can change the seeding date.” That was the message Morris agricultural representative Ingrid Kristjanson […] Read more
New Products
Tight-turning tractors Agco has developed a new series of tractors for farm and ranch operators. The Valtra A series of farm tractors offers a tight turning radius for enclosed areas and features a front-rear weight ratio that provides ideal balance when using a front-end loader. The tractors come in three models with horsepower ratings between […] Read more
The math behind yield calculation
CARMAN, Man. – One of the key factors in creating profit is the ability to decide when to keep on investing in a crop and when it’s time to let it go. Accurately determining these thresholds is important for insecticides, herbicides, top dressing nutrients and especially with fungicides, which cost $15 to $20 per acre. […] Read more
Water ensures fungicide penetration
Vanscoy, Sask. – At a recent BASF plot tour near Vanscoy, Mark Kuchuran, a BASF rep from Saskatoon, discussed fungicide application tips for disease control in pulse crops. “In field peas, we run a number of different timings of application for disease control. This year, the main disease has been mycosphaerella blight, with a lot […] Read more
New Products
Front-end loader The Custom Contour 360 is the latest model in the 300 series of front-end loaders by Westendorf Manufacturing. The model has a lift capacity of 3,900 pounds and lift height of 11 feet, four inches. It is designed for late-model front-wheel assist tractors and is an ideal fit for six-cylinder tractors with side-mount […] Read more
Producers go back to school
LETHBRIDGE – The weather in southern Alberta may be less than perfect for crops this year, but conditions are proving ideal for fertility trials. At a diagnostic field school held near Lethbridge recently fertility demonstrations showed everything from macro to micro nutrients. Nancy Lee, co-ordinator for the diagnostic field school, with the Southern Applied Research […] Read more
Wet, warm soil has large appetite for nitrogen
CARMAN, Man. – The proverbial silver lining in the saturated soil cloud is that at least most of the nitrogen will be there for next year’s crop. However, nitrogen is disappearing at a rapid rate as soil microbes devour nitrates in saturated fields. With current soil temperatures, fields can easily lose 16 pounds of nitrogen […] Read more
New pea pest eats root nodules
LETHBRIDGE – A new insect turning up in southern Alberta pea fields may not be causing economic levels of damage, but insect specialists and scientists are keeping a wary eye on the pea leaf weevil. “The first records of it in Western Canada are 1997 or 1998, when Bob Byers picked it up in some […] Read more
Eighty inches of magic
CARMAN, Man. – There are numerous methods that producers can use to determine if their stubble is suitable to trap snow for winter wheat survival: long yellow nylon ropes with knots tied every six inches; plastic hula-hoops; comparison photos to lay on the ground and a variety of math formulas. At the recent Crop Diagnostic […] Read more
