MARA, B.C. – Weeding the 12 acres of market vegetables grown at Wild Flight Farm near Mara, B.C., used to be a job for a crew with hand hoes. But in the past decade, Hermann and Louise Bruns, who operate the 20 acre vegetable farm, have added two modified mechanical weeders that allow their workers […] Read more
Production
System reduces hand hoeing
Surface tillage solves smear problems
BRANDON – The practice of light tillage before seeding can eliminate weeds, help prepare the seedbed by fluffing the soil and dry the surface to speed up the work in wet years. Light tillage can be used in the spring or for a fall-seeded crop. However, there are some drawbacks, said Todd Botterill of Salford […] Read more
Hose boom speeds water fills
CRAIK, Sask. – When Rick Wildfong bought a new sprayer in 2001, he needed to upgrade his water delivery system as well. “The old sprayer was a Bourgault with a bottom fill and it took too long. We bought this new Flexi-Coil and it has a 1,200 gallon tank, so we needed to fill it […] Read more
Late seeding may help create more insect problems this year
Farmers in central and northern Alberta who had later than normal seeding dates due to excessive moisture may also have issues with insect pest management. “Crop development requires growing degree-day accumulation, as does pest development,” said Jim Broatch, insect pest management specialist with Alberta Agriculture at Stettler. “Often, these developments need to be co-ordinated between […] Read more
Haskap research bears fruit with organic potential – Organic Matters
Haskap is poised to hit centre stage as the next offering from the University of Saskatchewan fruit breeding program. This fruit shows promise from the growing, harvesting, processing and marketing sides, and it has the potential to be grown organically. Haskap is the name given to this small fruit by ancient people in Japan. Other […] Read more
Commander follows orders
BRANDON – Farmers shopping for a pull-type sprayer are paying more attention to overlap and skip caused by the trailer tracking characteristics inherent in a conventional style sprayer trailer. Hardi has addressed the issue by designing a steerable, centre-articulating trailer for its new Commander series of pull-type sprayers. The configuration is in response to farmers […] Read more
Playing with herbicides upsets safener ratio
Farmers thinking of tinkering with herbicide rates need to be aware that they’re also tinkering with safener rates in some products. Doug Richardson, manager of research and development with Bayer CropScience in Calgary, said safeners are part of the process used by herbicides such as Puma Super and Horizon to control grass weeds in a […] Read more
Nodules key to pulse performance
NISKU, Alta. – Farmers concerned about the success of their pulse crops at developing nitrogen-fixing nodules now have a guide available to help determine that. The nodulation assessment guide was originally developed for use in British Columbia forestry projects, said Kevin Zaychuk, business development manager at 20/20 Seed Labs in Nisku, Alta. Contractors used small […] Read more
Giant bags hold gobs of grain
BRANDON – An innovation in grain handling does not involve steel or concrete. It uses big plastic bags. Small bags are nine feet wide, 200 feet long and hold 8,000 bushels. The larger bags are the same width, but 250 feet long. They hold 10,260 bu. Each bag is packed with grain by a machine […] Read more
Big yields make big bags good investment
Ken Somerville said there’s a strategic place for grain bags on his 14,000 acre farm at Eatonia, Sask. – for use as surge storage. “We’re set up for 30 to 35 bushel storage. We can handle that and put it all into steel bins. When our yields go higher, we run out of bin space,” […] Read more
