Category: Agronomy

It was the bumper crop that almost was. Late in the summer, farmers watched helplessly as ripe canola ready for swathing or swaths waiting for the combine were tossed around and blown into trees, shattering on to the ground bushel after bushel of seed. Some estimate that as much as 10 bushels an acre was... Read More

Better timing of manure application with in-crop needs was the motivation behind developing a new low disturbance, shallow injection manure application toolbar. The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives (OMAFRA), along with industry partners, developed the multi-coultered toolbar to try and find a made-in-Canada solution for in-crop manure applications for not just pastures... Read More

Larger discs sure do look menacing. They also require far more horsepower to pull, but they wear out more slowly than smaller-diameter discs. But there are two very important considerations when choosing planter disc size. The first is trash management (guess which one cuts through straw better? You may be surprised) and the second is... Read More

Many of the typical downgrading threats at harvest were a non-issue this year. There were no early frosts and very little rain to stain and sprout kernels. As such, much of the 2012 crop is testing very well with high germination rates and low weathering. The news is not all good, however, as extremely hot... Read More

The feel-good message about how healthy pulses are for us isn't new, but those who struggle to eat beans, peas, lentils and chickpeas in their whole form may be able to include more of them in their diet without changing the foods they already eat. That's the scope of a four-year pulse flour milling and... Read More

Dormancy or hard seed counts in peas is not a new phenomenon, but, interestingly, pea germination samples last year and again this year have had higher than usual hard seed counts. Hard seed is seed that has an impermeable seed coat — the seed is impermeable to water or the exchange of gases that occur... Read More

Do you remember the time before the world was saturated with information? Do you remember having to wait to get it? We have so many avenues to get our information by now that our biggest issue is where we get our information from. When we look at consumer attitudes toward agriculture, good or bad, we... Read More

Whatever your reason for planting a cover crop — for ground cover, for grazing or putting up feed or for N capture — there's a long list of options. Add in the choice of a second, third or more species and the combinations are endless. Planting two or more species may provide expanded options for... Read More

Ah, October — when farmers' thoughts turn to fall field work, turkey dinners and canola seed. 2012 was a tough year for the oilseed, there's no doubt, but a difficult growing season can really highlight the strengths and weaknesses in your canola seed genetics. While some will stick with the tried and true, others are... Read More

When we consider the effects of dry weather, we tend to think mostly about germination and seeding, but the effects of prolonged dry conditions reach into other areas we may not consider. One of those secondary areas includes fall fertilizer application, in particular, anhydrous ammonia. While the Thanksgiving weekend finally delivered some much needed moisture... Read More