There is no mineral that provides nitrogen for plants. No rock, like there is for phosphate or sulphur. There is some nitrogen in the organic matter of soils but any additional nitrogen that a plant needs has to come out of the air. The good news is that about 78 percent of the air around… Read More
There is a nondescript building in the north end of Saskatoon that produces live organisms that are shipped around the world to help plants feed themselves and produce grain. It takes some management to make sure the live organisms make it to their destination – farmer’s fields – healthy and vibrant, so they can get… Read More
Western Canada has a lot to look forward to with the 2018 Acceleron BioAg™ BioAdvantage Trial results, which include exciting results from year two of our “stack” trials on canola crops. Now in its fourth year, the Acceleron BioAg™ BioAdvantage Trial (BAT) program tests and measures the benefits of Acceleron BioAg inoculants on Canadian crops… Read More
Eastern Canada has a lot to look forward to with the 2018 Acceleron BioAg™ BioAdvantage Trial results, including results from a new corn product. Now in its fourth year, the Acceleron BioAg™ BioAdvantage Trial (BAT) program tests and measures the benefits of Acceleron BioAg inoculants on Canadian crops across diverse regions and soil types. In 2018,… Read More
Deciding which product to use is not easy. Depending on the category, the plethora of products or services is extensive and noisy. Whether it is biologicals, precision agriculture, or seed enhancements, to name a few, it can be very difficult to try and figure out which products are the best fit for your farm. At… Read More
There’s plenty of excitement surrounding lentils heading into the 2016 growing season, with record acres expected. In this Pulse School episode, Shannon Chant of Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Agriculture shares her top five tips for a good (or even great) lentil crop: 5 Tips for a Great Lentil Crop Good quality seed — Of course it… Read More
We’re about to flip the calendar to May, and, perhaps surprisingly, soil moisture is becoming a bit of an issue for those rolling in the fields, says Peter Johnson, in this week’s Wheat Pete’s Word. What can you do about soil that’s drying out too quickly? Well, you’re doing to have to adjust planting depth… Read More
Soybean planting time brings with it a number of decisions — what’s the optimal seeding rate? Which inoculants should be used, and should they be doubled up? What about seed treatment? Is a seed treatment with insecticide needed? As part of this Soybean School West episode, Kristen Podolsky of the Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers… Read More
Growth in the area of seed treating and coating has led turf and seed company BrettYoung to build a new multi-million dollar, 28 thousand square foot seed coating facility in the southwest corner of Winnipeg. A grand opening for the seed treatment plant, which has annual capacity exceeding 50 million pounds, was held on Tuesday…. Read More
The concept of nitrogen fixation in cereal crops is getting some mainstream attention after a trio of 16 year-olds from Ireland won an international prize for their work with nitrogen-fixing bacteria in wheat, barley and oats. The prizes for the 2014 Google Science Fair — the world’s largest science competition for teenagers — were handed… Read More
Ensuring adequate nodulation starts with choosing the correct inoculant, keeping it alive prior to seeding and getting good coverage or placement. But what happens if, for any number of reasons, your pulse crop ends up with less than great nodules? What if you’ve got nodules that never pink up or seem to die off? In… Read More
Should you double up on soybean inoculant? Do you go full rates of both or half? Should you worry about some sort of extender if the soybeans sit for three weeks before popping up? For farmers (and ground!) new to growing soybeans, there are several things to consider when inoculating soybeans ahead of the growing… Read More
Which input do you think is the most critical to a pea crop’s success — starter N, inoculant type, fungicide seed treatment or seeding rate? If you guessed seeding rate, you get a gold star, but by how much and what impact, if any, do these other inputs have on maximizing pea yields? Those answers… Read More
Inoculating soybeans properly and with the appropriate product is one of the top two important decisions that factor into the success of the crop (variety selection for your region is the first). A 40-bushel an acre crop will require roughly 200 pounds of nitrogen per acre — properly inoculated soybeans will fix the lion’s share… Read More
Sliding pulses into rotation is a great way to bump up your crop rotation benefits, adds marketing and cash flow options and also adds nitrogen credits for subsequent crops. All that being said, the delivery of that added N is only possible if pulse seed is properly inoculated ahead of going in the ground or… Read More