It’s an agricultural conundrum – crops need nitrogen but too much too close can be toxic. Granular urea is the most cost effective form of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. Its high level of nitrogen and relatively low costs of production, transportation and storage make it a competitive product for farmers. But if too much of it […] Read more
Production
Handle coated urea with care
New Products
Dual pressures Checking the tire pressure of the inside tire on duals is often difficult. Sometimes it might not get done as often as it should. Inflation Solutions of New Carlisle, Ohio, has a solution for the dual tire problem – the single point for checking and filling agricultural tires, with built-in gauges to ensure […] Read more
Farmers efficient with phosphorus
BRANDON – The 38 million acre Assiniboine River watershed puts 2.6 million pounds of phosphorus into the Manitoba river every year, which pencils out to less than .1 pound per acre. Is that really significant? “It is less than a half percent of the total amount of phosphate removed by crops each year,” said Don […] Read more
Big auger won’t steer you wrong
BRANDON – Bernie Toews has seen it happen. Farmers buy a bigger auger and the yard seems to shrink. Trees, utility poles, buildings, culverts and other obstacles seem to pop up in places where there once had been enough open space to manoeuvre. “I found it frustrating one day to reverse the tractor and auger […] Read more
Farmers open to new ideas
CARBERRY, Man. – It’s easier to convince 30,000 prairie farmers to grow dryland rice than to convince three billion Chinese consumers to eat our prairie-grown wheat. It’s a comment zero till researcher Dwayne Beck has made numerous times over the years when discussing how farmers on the northern Great Plains can become more profitable by […] Read more
Economics pattern predicts drought
Farmers may not know it, but since 1875 they’ve been riding the Benner Cycle. Samuel Benner had been a prosperous American farmer until he was wiped out by the commodity market panic and hog cholera epidemic of 1873. In retirement, he created a set of long-term predictions that included grain, hogs, iron, the stock market […] Read more
Clean filter integral to engine performance
Engines take in a tremendous amount of air to mix with fuel. Modern farm equipment often displaces nine litres or more of air with each cycle of the pistons. The air these machines need must be clean when it gets beyond the filter. According to a major engine manufacturer, it takes about half a cup […] Read more
The art of welding
First I will deal with the basics of stick, TIG and MIG welding. After that, I hope to get into leading edge technologies. I will also cover the more subtle nuances of how to produce a good weld in different kinds of on-farm situations. Our ground is good and the amperage is set, so let’s […] Read more
Potato growers seek fungicide alternatives
It appears nature has once again caught up with technology. Alternaria solani, a fungus that causes early blight in potatoes, has mutated into a new form that is more resistant to stobilurins, a commonly used class of fungicides. More importantly, the mutation is now found in most Canadian potato fields. An Agriculture Canada study, released […] Read more
Man of Steel smiles
Robert Carey’s smiling Man of Steel sculpture is a close replica of the human structure, down to correct spine curvature, rib cage, hips, skull and jawbone, as well as elbow and knee joints. “I worked out of a human anatomy textbook,” said Carey, who recently graduated from the welding program at Winnipeg Technical College. “I […] Read more
