Alberta's CanoLAB kicked off this week in Olds, Alberta. The event was jam-packed with hands-on sessions involving disease, frost, insects, inputs and Olympics coverage — oh, that last bit was over lunch: totally legit. If you missed CanoLAB this year, following are some photos for your perusal (plus Saskatchewan and Manitoba have yet to host... Read More
Category: Agronomy
Syngenta Canada has received approval for registration of Cruiser Maxx Potato Extreme seed treatment in Canada. This all-in-one, liquid pre-mix delivers a concentrated formulation for convenient use and provides reliable protection from seed-borne diseases and early-season insects, Syngenta says. "This new liquid pre-mix formulation provides growers with the ability to target both disease and insect... Read More
What's the only surefire way to know whether or not the sprayer is applying product at the rate you've specified? Can you let the cab monitor set it and forget it? That's the very first question Tom Wolf, spray application specialist and founder of AgriMetrix Research & Training, tackles in this episode of Spray tips,... Read More
At CropConnect 2014 I ran into Brad Ewankiw who is working with FMC in Manitoba. Brad and I chatted about FMC, the potential growth in flax acres for 2014 and his first impressions of CropConnect 2014 in Winnipeg. I have known Brad for quite some time and its great to finally get him on RealAgriculture.com.... Read More
It’s like a scene from an old-timey western movie. A grizzled cowboy squints into the horizon and says “I don’t like the look of those clouds. Storm is a’ brewin.” I’ve witnessed similar body language as I cross the country talking to farmers about mobile technology and the new world of data management, but it’s... Read More
Nitrogen and phosphorus get all the glory when it comes to the macronutrients. But there are two others in the NPKS mix, you know. The third most important nutrient, potassium, often gets thrown by the wayside and only seems to come up when there is a market discussion on Potash Corp or Russia’s Uralkali. There... Read More
Don't shoot the messenger, but if you haven't priced your nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer for this year, things are about to get very ugly. Or uglier. There's really no upside here, unless you happen to have a neighbour with livestock and a manure problem (which you might. Ask around. Don't worry, I'll wait here while... Read More
As crop prices fall and margins tighten, every farmer is looking for an edge — whether a bump in production or more efficient use of inputs. The increased pressure to scratch out a profit takes extra time and effort on planning and management. Deciding on where to focus that extra time and effort is the... Read More
If it's late May and your winter wheat crop is awake and starting to look good so you figure it's time to top up the nitrogen, you've already missed the ideal window for a spring application. Plus, if you didn't take care of winter annuals last fall, those tiny seedlings that over wintered took off... Read More
In farming, we want two very opposite things from seed — we want a seed that stores well, perhaps even long term, but also a seed that, the moment conditions are right, it speedily germinates and becomes a hardy seedling. You can't always have it both ways, of course, and the inner workings of a... Read More