Five Canadian universities are receiving $1.4 million in grants from the Canadian Space Agency to analyze soil moisture information collected by NASA's Soil and Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite. The funding for Université de Sherbrooke, the University of Guelph, the University of Manitoba, the University of Toronto, and l'Institut national de la recherche scientifique was... Read More

Preliminary research conducted in southern Manitoba is casting some doubt on the common belief that dark, tilled soil is best for planting soybeans in northern growing regions. Greg Bartley, a graduate student working together with Dr. Yvonne Lawley at the University of Manitoba, is in his second year of comparing how soybeans respond when planted... Read More

Canola fields with spotty emergence and heat-blasted pods have farmers in parts of the prairies grappling with the thought that their crops might not be worth combining. But that doesn't mean it's time to till it under. "There are some other uses for canola that we normally wouldn't consider," says Keith Gabert, agronomy specialist with... Read More

“Lean” principles originally developed to increase efficiency and reduce waste in the automobile manufacturing sector are being applied in many other business and process-related sectors, including primary agriculture. Toyota is often credited as the first company to develop and intentionally implement Lean principles in their assembly lines decades ago. Last year, the Agri-Food Management Institute,... Read More

Grain and oilseed futures have dropped sharply over the last week, falling well off the summer highs set earlier in July. Weather premiums are shrinking as growing conditions have improved, or at least stabilized, across much of Canada and the U.S. corn belt over the last three weeks, explains Dave Reimann, senior market analyst with... Read More

If you've wished for custom blended herbicide types or specific volumes of a tank-mix, DuPont's latest PrecisionPac offering may be of interest. DuPont Crop Protection recently rolled out its PrecisionPac 3.0 herbicide blending concept, a specially-designed delivery system that dispenses customized herbicide blends. "Most crop protection products are sold in packaged 40-acre increments, leaving leftover... Read More

Weeds cause grief in many ways — stealing yield, water and nutrients, or complicating harvest by staying green or staining the crop. But some weed species are much nastier than others (who hasn't been stung by stinging nettle?), and a few problem species are spreading in places like Ontario, B.C and Manitoba. Far worse than... Read More