A few weeks ago, I visited Mike Dugan, meat lipid scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, to ask about feeding flax seed to pigs to increase omega-3s in pork, and thus diversify the consumer base. But, one may ask, where's the beef? Well, a current study at the Lacombe Research Centre in Alberta is looking... Read More
Category: Crops
June is a great time to assess patterns in a field and get to the root cause of any problems you see. Patchy areas, differences in maturity, height or colour could be any number of things — insect damage, disease, a nutrient deficiency or, and it's often overlooked, a soil structure problem. In this video,... Read More
If you scouted your canola field for flea beetle damage even a day or two ago, it's time to get out there and do it again. Kristen Phillips, agronomy specialist in Manitoba for the Canola Council of Canada, is reporting a few thousand acres near Brandon will have to be reseeded because of excessive flea... Read More
Many soybean fields have taken a beating this year, unlike last year's straightforward early season. A late May frost, then really hot temps have stressed plants, plus crusting in some areas has entombed the poor beans under ground. In this RealAg Crop Update Ontario, Dan Foster with PRIDE Seeds, gives an update on not only... Read More
Grain Farmers of Ontario has refreshed the Ontario Wheat Pool brand in an effort to introduce new and young farmers to this marketing tool for the 2013-14 crop year. The re-branding includes a new logo and a new online Wheat Marketing Tool for those unfamiliar with the wheat pool. The tool is intended to help... Read More
As farmers continue to look for ways to capitalize on the local food movement, some new hints were offered up earlier this week from researchers at the University of Florida. In the southeastern U.S., Florida is considered the state with the greatest diversity of what most people would typically call local food, particularly fruit and... Read More
Determining when to take first, second and subsequent cuts of alfalfa is part science and part art. What's more, relative feed value and yield tend to peak at early bud then part ways soon after. For the beef producers in the crowd, early flowering is going to offer biggest yields with good quality, but our... Read More
Applying fungicides to pulses early is crucial, particularly with polycyclic diseases which can spread through the canopy quickly. Downy mildew is one of these polycyclic diseases, but it's trickier than most to control due to a few factors, says Kan-Fa Chang, research scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development. Chang says limited fungicide options makes... Read More
The government of Canada and the government of Saskatchewan have announced a joint funding agreement that earmarks $1.25 million over five years for the creation of a forage research chair at the University of Saskatchewan. The forage research chair will focus on forage breeding with an emphasis on developing new forage varieties with improved yields,... Read More
Top-dressing nitrogen (N) is on the rise across Western Canada for a number of reasons. Farmers are constantly trying to attain higher yields, and applying N after the crop has emerged allows a farmer to put down what he couldn’t with his seeder and manipulate yield or protein (in cereals) accordingly. It is also used... Read More