LACOMBE, Alta. – Triticale growers want the 120-year-old plant to become more than a wallflower at the dance. Triticale, the result of crossing wheat and rye, has been used for years for silage or greenfeed because it is prolific and can withstand droughts. But Alberta researchers want to improve on that by reducing its height […] Read more
Production
Triticale to get face lift
Biotechnology expands uses
LETHBRIDGE – Triticale is a man made crop that exhibits the best qualities of its rye and wheat parents. Now scientists are using biotechnology to advance a good utility animal feed for ethanol, paper and plastic production. “It is a beautiful plant, very well adapted to the region and higher yielding than wheat,” said Andre […] Read more
Granaries nearly 11,000 years old
People may not have been farming 11,000 years ago, but they knew the importance of good grain storage. Recent work by researchers has revealed that 1,000 years before humans began selecting and planting seeds and domesticating cereal crops, they were harvesting grain and storing it in granaries with dryer floors and hopper bottoms. It appears […] Read more
Figuring out what makes an engine tick – Inside Machines
Have you ever looked at the various parts on a tractor or combine and asked, “just how does it work?” I will attempt to answer those questions in a series of articles because the more we understand how things function, the better off we’ll be at maintaining them or fixing them. Let’s talk about the […] Read more
Farmers eager to improve technology
REGINA – Kyrat Ebryan was a long way from home, but looking out at the Canadian prairie made him feel like he’d just stepped out his back door. The Kazakhstani farmer, along with eight others, made the trip to Canada this spring to harvest ideas about Canadian agriculture. “We have very similar farm types. The […] Read more
TIG welder is a one-man band – The Buzz Box
If you’ve ever watched one of those one-man-band performers at the fair, you’ve got an idea of what TIG welding is like. Creating a good TIG weld requires two steady hands, one steady foot and a high level of co-ordination. If you can keep the tip of the electrode a constant 0.040 of an inch […] Read more
Newdale may become Manitoba’s official soil
Minnedosa, Man. – Most people wouldn’t be comfortable making a speech from a narrow trench, but Alan Moulin is in his element as he talks about the varying soil characteristics at the Manitoba Zero Till Research Farm. Starting at the highest elevation of the metre wide and metre deep trench, Moulin, a soil scientist with […] Read more
The sky’s the limit for anhydrous ammonia
BRANDON – The air we breathe is 78 percent nitrogen. Wind, which is nothing more than moving air, can generate electricity to extract hydrogen from water. Marry free hydrogen to free nitrogen and the result is free anhydrous ammonia. Well, almost free. The cost of the equipment to create the product has to be considered, […] Read more
Field, insect history helps diagnose crop damage
LETHBRIDGE – Twisted pea plants and purple-tinged canola can be signs of herbicide damage. Sandi Scott, a research technician at the Alberta Research Council, works like a detective when diagnosing the injured plants that arrive at her laboratory every year. Like any good investigator, she needs to know the history and the whereabouts of those […] Read more
Soil tests flawed but critical
LETHBRIDGE – Commercial soil testing has been around for more than 40 years in Western Canada, but many fertilizer recommendations are based on research from the United States. Western Canada does not have a good soil test calibration system for soil response to fertilizer, particularly for micronutrients, says Tom Jensen, head of the International Plant […] Read more
