In the cattle industry, interest in new corn varieties stems from a desire to increase efficiency and production, whether utilized as a grain source, ensiled or left standing for winter grazing. Ensiled, corn offers high energy, a key to high milk production. And, although much of a silage's quality is determined by in-field management, harvest... Read More
Category: Agronomy
How can a producer make their farm more resilient and less vulnerable to both economic and climatic stresses? Focus on the health of the soil, says Ray Archuleta, a conservation agronomist with USDA-NRCS in North Carolina (and also known as the “The Soil Guy.”) Archuleta spoke about the “journey to soil health” during his keynote... Read More
Syngenta Canada has announced its first clubroot-resistant canola variety, SY4105, will be available for spring 2015. This variety is the fourth canola variety in Syngenta's portfolio. SY4105 is resistant to common clubroot pathotypes. Certain other pathotypes have been identified in Alberta, and work is ongoing to screen SY4105 against them to determine if it is... Read More
This week marks the third annual Canadian Dairy Xpo at Stratford, Ont., and both Shaun Haney and Bernard Tobin are there capturing the latest in dairy production information. (Watch the site in the next few days as we’ll be posting coverage of the keynote speakers!) Yesterday, Ontario’s minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs, Jeff... Read More
As Bill C-18 — The Agricultural Growth Act — makes its way through the parliamentary process, questions linger around what the bill does and doesn’t mean for Canadian farmers. Will the changes to Canada’s Plant Breeders’ Rights act mean you can you still save seed? Will the adoption of UPOV ’91 make seed more expensive?... Read More
Not only are there environmental benefits to improved soil biology, but there are economic incentives as well, says a farmer from Ohio who spoke about cover crops and a systems approach to microbiology at the SoilSmart conference in Waterloo, Ont., in late January. Jeff Rasawehr joined Bernard Tobin to discuss six steps for establishing healthy... Read More
While the Groundhog Day forecasters across Canada are sending mixed messages about what kind of weather to anticipate for the next six weeks, the senior meteorologist with World Weather Inc. says farmers in Western Canada should expect more of what they’ve been getting. For the eastern side of the prairies, that means surges of cold... Read More
There’s a robust corn research project in the works in Manitoba looking at not just the agronomic impact of corn in rotation, but the economics of adding the crop being used for food, feed and — sometimes — fuel. If you check out the CropConnect agenda (here), you’ll find a list of names associated with... Read More
A joint federal-provincial funding announcement has pledged $250,000 in research funding and $969,000 for equipment for a Manitoba lab aimed at identifying and addressing problems caused by canola diseases and pests. Research funding is provided under Growing Forward 2 - Growing Actions and will be used to take samples from across the province to determine... Read More
These aren't your daddy's corn hybrids. If you think modern corn hybrids are leaps and bounds more productive than what you were planting 15 or years ago, you're right. But thinking so and knowing so (and how) are two different things, and for that you need research. Tony Vyn, of Purdue University, has looked at... Read More