Knowing what is happening both above and below ground in an agricultural field is of utmost importance as farmers look to maximize their yield potential while simultaneously managing the land sustainably. One way to do this is to have soil and plant tissue formally tested in a laboratory. While Farmers Edge has been primarily using... Read More
Category: Soil
Saline soils are part of the natural landscape of Western Canada. "They were here when we broke the land, they are part of the soil cycle and they're here to stay," says Nutrien Premium Fertilizer Technologies senior agronomist Lyle Cowell. Salt can move down through the soil profile and outside the root system, but high... Read More
Is a healthy soil about what it has, or is, or does, or doesn't do? There are three ways to assess soil: through its physical, chemical, and biological components. But is a healthy soil one that produces the highest yield? Or is it the one with the highest biological activity? What about organic matter, trafficability,... Read More
A new intake for Ontario’s On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) opens August 1, 2024. Applications will be accepted on a continuous basis. OFCAF funding, administered by Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association in the province, provides successful applicants with cost-share funding to support the implementation of best management practices (BMPs) to tackle climate change through... Read More
No ruts, no worries, right? Not so, at least not when it comes to deep compaction impacts. Air pockets and macropores in soil structure help move water down the soil profile, and where water goes, so do the nutrients. Compacted soils restrict root growth, oxygen, and nutrient and water movement, ultimately restricting yield potential. What's... Read More
Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous move quite differently though the soil, and understanding how they travel is key to helping growers choose the best application strategies. Phosphorous, for example, tends to be more like a tortoise, moving slowly and methodically. Nitrogen, on the other hand, is the hare, racing quickly through the plant root... Read More
The Prairie Farmer and Rancher Forum eventually agreed — by consensus — on 36 policy recommendations it wants to see put forward. But that doesn't mean that all the attendees of the forum agreed with each other at the outset. Instead, the forum worked hard to find areas of common interest and support to create... Read More
If the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry was looking for a grade on its soil health report, Jim Tokarchuk would give them an A+. Tokarchuk is the executive director for the Soil Conservation Council of Canada, and he appreciates that the Senate committee did an excellent job in covering the issue with a Canadian... Read More
Canada is a huge country with a relatively low population. In theory, that leaves plenty of land for growing food. But between the Canadian Shield, permafrost, the Rockies, highways and infrastructure, cities and towns there's far less land available than you might think, and less every year. That means the demand put on each acre... Read More
It's not just insects that may have a jump on the crop this year in Ontario — weeds are large and in charge, and diseases, such as tar spot, could blow up from the U.S. much earlier than last year. But that's not all the agronomic knowledge you'll glean from this episode of Wheat Pete's... Read More