![A top-down approach [to regenerative agriculture] can work, maybe, but it does have limitations. Some food and agriculture companies have realized that this movement should be handed back to farmers, says University of Washington geologist David Montgomery. | File photo](https://static.producer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/22141434/03-RKA121018_david_montgomery2-660x420.jpg)
MINNEAPOLIS — In 2018, before the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of artificial intelligence, David Montgomery was encouraging farmers and the agricultural industry to make a major shift. The University of Washington geologist and author of the book Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations was a regular speaker at farm conferences across North America. Related stories […] Read more
Tag Archives cover crops
Sustainability has a problem
MINNEAPOLIS — Mars has a problem. Not the red planet, but the company. It’s one of the largest human and pet food companies in the world, posting $50 billion in revenue last year. Related stories in this issue: Global sales have been increasing, and this year the privately held company acquired the Kellogg’s line of […] Read more
Caution needed when feeding brassica forages to cattle
Polycrops have become a more commonplace method of feeding beef cattle in Western Canada over the past number of years. They may also be known as intercrops, cover crops or cocktail crops but all involve a mixture of plant species that may range from three to more than 20 species. Polycrops can provide grazing when […] Read more
Diversity called key to strong cover crops
Diverse mixes beneficial for forage production and soil health, but it depends on what producers want to do on their farms
Glacier FarmMedia – MELFORT, Sask. — For some, cover crops come from anything available to keep things green through the shoulder season. For others, they’re a carefully curated recipe to make specific improvements in a field. The blend demonstrated in late July at the Melfort Crop Diagnostic School was closer to the second option. It […] Read more
Farms can be made pollinator friendly
Glacier FarmMedia – Producers pay a lot of attention to inputs, seeding rates and combine settings to expand profit margins. According to ag entomology experts, they should also pay attention to pollinator populations and diversity. That means more than honeybees. In Saskatchewan, there are up to 400 different species of bees that contribute as pollinators. […] Read more
Sustainability scoring service gets upgrade
WINNIPEG — Archer Daniels Midland and the Farmers Business Network are collaborating on a new venture that could help growers get more value from sustainable practices. On Aug. 19, ADM and FBN announced plans to expand a platform called Gradable and operate it as a 50-50 joint venture. “Gradable is rapidly becoming one of the […] Read more
Cover crops pose challenge for Prairie farmers
Practice called difficult, although not impossible, within existing production systems such as herbicide-tolerant canola
Glacier FarmMedia – Cover crops can provide benefits, but incorporating them into other cropping systems, especially when growing herbicide-tolerant crops including canola, can be a challenge. That’s the topic of the latest research by Yvonne Lawley, an associate professor in the University of Manitoba plant science department. She was the key speaker at a July […] Read more
Major U.S. research project conducted in southern Sask.
South East Research Farm conducts cover crop trials for Pepsico and the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research
REDVERS, Sask. — If research is going to be ground-truthed to make sure it applies to the real world of farming, it needs to be truthed on the kind of ground farmers actually farm. That was probably one of the keys to the South East Research Farm (SERF) landing a major research contract from food […] Read more
Vegetable grower experiments with cover crops
When the Manitoba Organic Alliance couldn’t find producers using the practice, it convinced a grower to give it a try
Glacier FarmMedia – When the Manitoba Organic Alliance first looked for a vegetable farmer who was using cover crops, it struck out. It had to convince Jeff Veenstra of Wild Earth Farms in the Rural Municipality of Springfield to try the idea. “Honestly, I probably would not have done it this year had I not […] 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
