AAFC, USask team up in robotic phenotyping of spring wheat trials
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researchers are strapping phenotyping equipment to unmanned, ground-based vehicles (UGVs) in an effort to develop technology that will advance crop breeding programs. Keshav Singh, a research scientist from AAFC Lethbridge, is leading the three-year pilot project. Other stories in the New Seed Variety Guide 2025: “The primary goal of the project […] Read moreTag Archives Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
What crop traits are on your wish list?
Last year when I was organizing content for the New Seed Variety Guide the drought across much of the Prairies weighed heavily on everyone in agriculture. Unsurprisingly, drought tolerance often came up during conversations with both farmers and researchers as an important research priority. Other stories in the New Seed Variety Guide 2025: It’s still […] Read more
‘Midgebusters’ seek resistant genes
Scientists explore wheat midge resistance in order to stack them into new varieties and extending the life of Sm1
Glacier FarmMedia – A new public-academic research project is scrutinizing an older spring wheat variety to assess its potential for midge tolerance. Researchers with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the University of Manitoba are genomically mapping the 2013-released AC Vesper VB spring wheat to understand a trait that appears to repel female midge from laying […] Read more
Putting a dollar to rangeland benefits
Glacier FarmMedia – How much are native grasslands worth? One research project is aimed at answering that question. The Genome Prairie project, a multi-year, $5.9 million endeavour that involves public and academic stakeholders, will use genomic tools in attempts to figure out the dollar value of rangelands and the ecological goods and services they provide. […] Read more
Leaf diseases dry up in Alta.
Glacier FarmMedia – A July heat wave in Alberta may have minimized crop damage from cereal leaf diseases. Variable precipitation this spring had pathologists and producers braced to handle the leaf spot complex of diseases but that may not be necessary, says a prominent plant pathologist. “With the weather that we’ve had over the last […] Read more
Keeping ahead of herbicide resistant weeds on the Prairies
Glacier FarmMedia – LANGHAM, Sask. — Be proactive, be creative and don’t be cheap. That was the takeaway from a panel discussion on managing herbicide resistance at this year’s Ag in Motion farm show. “I think the best management practice that someone could do for weed resistance is the one you’re not currently doing on […] Read more
Rains recharge groundwater
Farmers in Western Canada can breathe a sigh of relief. Rain across most of the Prairies this spring has helped recharge groundwater and lowered drought risk across the region. “We had an extremely warm winter with lower than normal precipitation in most areas,” said Trevor Hadwen, agroclimate specialist for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. “We were […] Read more
Including cattle on cropland didn’t help soil health
Saskatchewan and Manitoba research finds soil benefits from cover crops, but grazing them doesn’t really move the needle
Glacier FarmMedia – Annual cover crops have another research receipt to support their purported soil health benefits. But while those mixes can help cattle producers graze longer or recover some of the establishment cost by feeding livestock, cattle activity might not magnify soil health gains as much as many would hope. The research comes from […] Read more
Outlook focuses on problem Prairie weeds
Glacier FarmMedia – The past few seasons have been a challenging time for farmers on the Canadian Prairies. Extreme heat, lack of precipitation and steep increases in production costs have caused some sleepless nights for many producers. As if those weren’t enough to contend with, another potential threat to crops will soon rear its ugly […] Read more
New website against weeds launched
Farmers will be able to access a library of resources, events, weed distribution maps and other tools to inform their fights against weeds
Producers have a new website to bookmark if they’re looking for weed information on the Prairies. The Western Grains Research Foundation has announced the official launch of their weed monitoring hub, www.prairieweeds.com. The website will be the new digital host for resources, data, weed maps and research under the Prairie Weed Monitoring Network (PWMN)—a joint […] Read more
