How can farmers diagnose soil fertility issues? What tools can identify nutrient deficiencies and best manage variability across fields and farms? On this episode of RealAgriculture's Soil School, Bernard Tobin visits Southwest Crop Diagnostic Days at the Ridgetown College campus, University of Guelph, to report on three soil testing and mapping technologies — GroundWork, SoilOptix... Read More
Category: Soil
New soil testing technology that goes beyond chemistry to analyzing soil biology will be available in Canada as the result of a new partnership between Taurus Agricultural Marketing and Iowa-based Trace Genomics. The two companies announced the partnership on Thursday (August 24). Trace's metagenomics technology analyzes DNA in a soil sample, providing data on over... Read More
Understanding each field's soil is key to maximizing yield potential. That's the philosophy Fieldwalker Agronomy's Jonathan Zettler takes to the field when advising clients on how to best manage the unique environments throughout their farms. On this episode of the RealAgriculture Soil School, host Bernard Tobin catches up with Zettler at Luymes Farms at Moorefield,... Read More
Is it efficient to use autonomous vehicle in row crop agriculture in southwestern Ontario? That's a question cash crop farmer Mark Richards is wrestling with on his Dresden, Ont. farm. In 2022, he used a solar-powered FarmDroid robot to plant sugar beets. That machine found it challenging to adapt to the widespread use of strip... Read More
Can heavy July rains fuel nitrogen leaching and push the valuable nutrient beyond the reach of corn plant roots? That's a question Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs corn specialist Ben Rosser has been hearing a lot lately as many areas of the province have been dealt a deluge of rain. On this... Read More
When talking soil, often the topic focus is on soil type, nutrients, moisture, or microbiology. But what about soil structure? As Steve Larocque, Alberta farmer and founder of Beyond Agronomy explains in this Soil School episode, the physical types of soil can't be changed, whether it be sand, silt, or clay. However, how land is... Read More
Earthworms are not just great for fishing bait, but also an indication of soil health. Or is that actually true? The origin of this topic popped into my head as I travelled across the Prairies last week shooting agronomic videos. At a couple stops the farmers referenced earthworm populations as an indication of soil health.... Read More
Strong plant stands can set a soybean crop up for big yields. But difficult spring conditions can leave soybean seedlings fighting to emerge and unable to contribute to the population levels needed to reach yield expectations. In Ontario, typically one to four per cent of the soybean acres fail to establish adequate plant stands and... Read More
When it comes to soil management, living roots produced by cover crops provide a laundry list of soil health benefits — everything from building soil aggregates and pore spaces to improving soil infiltration and controlling wind and water erosion. But those cover crops need water and as dry conditions persist in Western Canada, the U.S.... Read More
It's been dry and cool across Ontario since soybean planting started rolling at top speed in mid-May and those conditions are causing replant headaches for many growers. Field scouting has revealed a host of soil, seed emergence, and vigour issues, including crusting and cold injury. On this episode of the RealAgriculture Soybean School, Clark Agri-Service... Read More