REGINA Ñ Following nearly a decade of groundwork, the Saskatchewan Soil Conservation Association has announced the first carbon trade in Canada involving farmers. “Since 1996, the Saskatchewan Soil Conservation Association has been working on the possibility of carbon trading and returning value to farmers through the storage of carbon in the soil,” said Darryl Reynolds, […] Read more
Production
Conservation group tests carbon trade
Proper plot design improves results
Yield monitors based on a global positioning system can make on-farm field research easier to manage at harvest time, but a farmer from Carman, Man., says plot planning is critical to produce useful test results. Brent VanKoughnet, who also runs the agricultural consulting firm AgriSkills Inc., said if he’s using a yield monitor to evaluate […] Read more
Oilseeds can be used in feed
Saskatchewan cattle feeders are getting a first-hand look at the latest developments in supplementing cattle rations with oilseeds. The Prairie Feed Resource Centre in Saskatoon recently organized feedlot tours that included the Pound-Maker Agventures feedlot in Lanigan, Sask. The centre is hoping to increase awareness of the benefits of integrating more edible oil crops in […] Read more
Check moisture, temperature of canola
Rising temperatures should send canola growers out to their bins to check for signs of possible seed deterioration. “We’ve had a lot of reports of spoilage since the temperatures started to go up,” says David Vanthuyne, an agronomist with the Canola Council of Canada. “It doesn’t need to happen.” Vanthuyne said that in spring, when […] Read more
New Products
Spraying guide Spraying Systems, which manufactures TeeJet spray products, has produced a 56-page educational booklet on spray nozzle terminology, selection and maintenance. The booklet examines cost consequences and potential yield loss associated with improper application rates, technical aspects of spray nozzles, types of spray nozzles, resources for technical assistance and advice, nozzle maintenance and sprayer […] Read more
Diesel dollars fuel one-pass seeding trains
Just as the spectre of escalating diesel prices increases interest in one-pass seeding trains, the supply of money for new seeding equipment is drying up. Direct seeding and zero till have gradually become more widespread over the years, but the availability of money to invest in new equipment has often been in short supply, especially […] Read more
Zero till can be done on the cheap
Gordon Kaytor has used a mid-row retrofit 8800 to put in two successive zero till crops on his 1,350-acre farm at Newdale, Man. “If you’re looking at getting into a zero-till type seeder without spending a lot of money, this is the way to do it. It was very inexpensive,” said Kaytor, who had already […] Read more
Cart uses ground-drive hydraulics
DEBDEN, Sask. Ñ When Marcel Couture bought a Flexi-Coil air seeder in 1981, it came with a two-compartment air cart. The system worked fine until Couture moved into liquid fertilizer. In the early 1990s he modified the original air cart and mounted it on a farm-built wagon with a liquid tank. He’s used that setup […] Read more
Configurable rotor handles long straw
When Massey Ferguson engineers started work on their model 9000 Advanced Technology Rotor, or ATR, the challenge was to design a new combine with the unlikely combination of versatility and good straw while keeping the proven efficiency of rotary separation. They met the challenge with a unique system that allows an operator to make major […] Read more
Harvest 1,100 acres of oats under water
Ernie Mozdzen bought the first 9790 combine in Manitoba, and he is one of the few prairie producers with two full seasons of experience with a hot dry fall in 2003 and a wet, muddy, flooded fall in 2004. Mozdzen had 1,100 acres of standing oats, with all of it under water last fall. He […] Read more
