Sometimes, when you’re doing things a little differently, you just have to build what you need instead of buying it. Greg Vermeersch and his team at VanMeer Farms at Courtland, Ont., modified a planter frame to custom build a 32-row strip tiller unit. It’s a fair bit of engineering, and on this episode of The… Read More
Are Ontario farmers doing a better job of getting phosphorus to stay put on their farms? Over the past decade, farmers, agronomists, researchers and governments have ramped up efforts to reduce the amount of phosphorus leaving farm fields and creating environmental challenges in areas such as the Lake Erie and Sainte-Claire watersheds. University of Waterloo… Read More
From microwave ovens, to X-rays, and even potato chips, many important discoveries have been stumbled upon by accident. The same may to be true when it comes to weed control and the continuing fight to control glyphosate-resistant Canada fleabane. On this episode of RealAgriculture’s Soybean School, Mike Cowbrough, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural… Read More
The McBlain family farm, located southeast of Brantford in Ontario’s Brant County, hasn’t seen a plow in a generation. Tyler McBlain’s grandfather started no-tilling back in the 1980s. Since that time the farm has gradually moved to a no-till system for soybeans and wheat while all corn is now produced in a strip till system…. Read More
Typically, it’s tough to grow organic soybeans without turning to tillage for weed control. When done well, organic yields can rival conventional production, but it comes at a cost — from equipment and labour requirements to long-term soil degradation. There are production systems, however, that are proving to deliver yield without these drawbacks. In the… Read More
As a cover crop, cereal rye brings a lot to the table. It improves soil structure, builds organic matter, and protects against water and wind erosion. It’s also relatively inexpensive, can be seeded late, enhances weed control and is easy to kill. That makes it a nice fit for cash crop producers looking for a… Read More
Mark Burnham is doing his best to promote more wheat acres in Ontario. It can be a tough sell, but there’s no disputing the soil health benefits of having wheat in the rotation. The Cobourg, Ont.- farmer, who runs a mixed farm with his family, believes a corn-soy-wheat rotation, with some hay and cover crops,… Read More
Regenerative, restorative, and climate-smart agriculture — they’re all terms with roots firmly planted in farmers’ commitment to improving soil heath. Farmers who subscribe to these philosophies typically commit to five core practices: minimizing soil disturbance, maximizing soil diversity, keeping soil covered, maintaining living roots year-round, and integrating livestock. But how quickly should farmers be integrating… Read More
When Bloomfield, Ont. farmer Tyler Lester started planting cover crops, the goal was to help keep livestock out of pea crops to address food safety concerns raised by vegetable crop customers. With a healthy deer and wild turkey population that too often ventured into the crops, Lester and his family hatched a strategy to plant… Read More
Yield stability and income stability — that’s what farmers earn when they invest in regenerative agriculture. That message was heard often throughout the recent Innovative Farmers Association of Ontario (IFAO) annual conference in London, Ont. It’s a tune that more and more farmers are singing as they increase efforts to enhance soil health on their… Read More
Farmers need to treat soil as more than a chemistry set — they need to think about biology and ecology. That’s the message Kansas farmer Michael Thompson shared with those attending the Innovative Farmers Association of Ontario (IFAO) annual conference last week in London, Ont. Thompson does admit, however, that farmers have been successful in… Read More
Like most Ontario farmers, 2019 was a trying year from Mike Belan. The Lambton county farmer sat tight last spring as his Brookston clay loam soil absorbed heavy rain, but Belan was confident his farm could withstand Mother Nature’s moisture assault. He’s learned to be patient thanks to a 30-year investment in building healthy, resilient… Read More
If you’ve ever adopted a new way of doing things after attending a field day or conference, do you let the researcher or extension staff know? Sometimes, research can be a rather thankless job, and many researchers don’t hear back on their work being applied on-farm. Peter “Wheat Pete” Johnson came across just such an… Read More
The use of herbicides on-farm is a hot topic right now — especially when we’re talking glyphosate. At Agritechnica in Hannover, Germany, RealAgriculture’s Shaun Haney caught up with Irene Kramer of JBM, to talk about the JBM Mulcher, a unit designed to help reduce the use of herbicides. RealAgriculture’s coverage of Agritechnica 2019 is made… Read More
Have you thought about how much time you spend just re-filling during planting and seeding? Fill times for spraying often get plenty of attention, but there’s actually plenty of hours to gain at planting too, depending on your set up. In this week’s edition of Wheat Pete’s Word, a much healthier Peter Johnson is talking… Read More