Saskatchewan's Ministry of Agriculture has released a report outlining the quality profile of this year's crop. Only nine percent of the province's spring wheat crop is projected to be graded number 1 — well below the 10 year average of 39 percent. For winter wheat, only three percent is expected to grade as number 1,... Read More
Category: Agronomy
The first thing Jeff Schoenau likes to do when assessing soil is dig. Schoenau is Ministry of Agriculture Strategic Research Chair and professor at the University of Saskatchewan and he believes digging a soil pit can give a good indication of the vertical distribution of nutrients in a given area. But, as tiring as digging... Read More
New standards for storing and applying seed treatments are set to take effect across Canada in 2017. The new audit-based accreditation system was developed by CropLife Canada and its members “to provide uniform environmental, health and safety practices” at facilities where seed treatments are applied. If a business does not go through the accreditation process,... Read More
Syngenta Canada Inc. has announced the registration of Fortenza seed treatment, a new seed-applied insecticide for early-season cutworm control. The seed treatment can be used in conjunction with foliar products as part of canola growers' cutworm management strategy. Cutworms are an early season pest of canola and be particularly devastating to a crop, as the... Read More
Farm management and variable rate advisory firm Decisive Farming and Canada’s largest Case IH dealer — Rocky Mountain Equipment — have announced an alliance to integrate tech support for variable rate equipment. “There’s always been a gap in the market before this alliance between the variable rate provider and the equipment dealer. This is closing... Read More
How often do you test spray-water quality and what do you do if you've got hard water? If you're looking to replace your spray tank, is stainless still the way to go? What about double nozzles — are they really the bees knees? These are just some of the questions the Spray Tips series has... Read More
Growth in the area of seed treating and coating has led turf and seed company BrettYoung to build a new multi-million dollar, 28 thousand square foot seed coating facility in the southwest corner of Winnipeg. A grand opening for the seed treatment plant, which has annual capacity exceeding 50 million pounds, was held on Tuesday.... Read More
Genetically engineering insects is no longer a vision for the future. In fact, one group of GE mosquitoes, Oxitec Ltd's OX513A, have moved from proof of principle to deployment, and have been used in open field trials in Malaysia, Grand Cayman, and now in Brazil. The mosquitoes are hoped to control their non-modified counterpart, Aedes... Read More
Do you know what quality impact moving corn through your handling, drying and storage set up has? It can be significant, but if you're not sampling (and sampling properly) at several points in the process, you can't know for sure. What's more, a good chunk of damage, either through too hot/too fast drying or moisture... Read More
The idea that GMO-free foods are more "natural" than those with genetically modified ingredients is a misconception, says a plant biologist and advocate for genetic modification from the University of Florida. Speaking at the University of Manitoba last week, Kevin Folta discussed how transgenic (or GM) technology works and misunderstandings about genetically modified organisms. He... Read More