2016 was likely the worst year on record for fusarium head blight (FHB) infection in Western Canada, as the disease has spread west and north since becoming a problem in southern Manitoba in the early 1990s. According to the Canada Grain Commission’s harvest sample survey, almost a quarter of cereal samples in Alberta tested positive for… Read more »
Category: Irrigation
Reduce Runoff with Reservoir Tillage
There’s a new conservation tillage practice in town. Move over no-till, reduced till and strip till, here comes reservoir tillage. The RT850 reservoir tillage tool from Minnesota-based Willmar Fabrication is designed to run between crop rows and make depressions in the ground using 10-inch teeth to create better water infiltration and reduce runoff. “You’re just… Read more »
Corn School: Doing the Math on Subsurface Drip Irrigation
It’s been four years since Todd Boughner of Judge Farms took the plunge and installed 67 acres of subsurface drip irrigation on a sandy soiled farm near Delhi, Ontario. When Real Agriculture first visited the project, Boughner, the farm manager, was busy working with a crew to install drip tape across the entire field in… Read more »
Lethbridge College Introduces First Irrigation Research Chair
With two-thirds of Canada’s irrigated land located in Alberta, Lethbridge College is boosting its capacity for irrigation research. Willemijn Appels has joined the school as its first Mueller Applied Research Chair in Irrigation Science — a position made possible with a $3.1 million gift from Lloyd and Dorothy Mueller announced in 2014. “Producers, businesses, irrigation district… Read more »
Corn School: Want to Grow 500-Bushel Corn? Stop The Insanity
If farmers want to supersize their corn yields, they have to challenge conventional thinking and become students of the crop. That was the main message National Corn Growers Association yield contest champion Randy Dowdy shared with hundreds of farmers at the 2016 SouthWest Agricultural Conference in Ridgetown, Ontario earlier this week. In 2014, Dowdy set… Read more »
Lethbridge College Receives $3.1 Million Gift to Support Agriculture Programs
Agricultural programming at Lethbridge College will benefit from a record-setting $3.1 million gift from a family whose Alberta roots go back to its earliest days as a province, the college announced today. The planned-giving philanthropic gift from Lloyd and Dorothy Mueller will transform the college’s agricultural programming and shape the future of the agricultural industry… Read more »
TechTour: Zimmatic’s Fieldnet With Variable Rate Irrigation
Every year, North American farmers adopt more technology, enabling precision, efficiency and, in some cases, more holiday time. Even those with intensive management systems can control and monitor some of the operation from a distance. This is certainly becoming the case with irrigation systems, with a few apps and precision technologies now competing on the marketplace…. Read more »
Wheat School: Managing Wheat on Saline Soils
Soil salinity is one of those issues that creeps up — quite literally. The accumulation of salts in the growing zone typically happens slowly over time, causing small yield losses that may go unnoticed until salinity is quite severe. The tell-tale wavy growth in a field or, worse, bare batches or salt-loving weeds moving in… Read more »
Ontario Farm Fights Dry Conditions With Drip Irrigated Field
The drought conditions in Ontario this year squashed the potential of what was looking to be an exceptional corn crop. A number of producers suffered crop failures in some of the hardest hit areas. It wasn’t just corn that was affected. The extreme heat took it’s toll across a number of different crops. The damage… Read more »
Saiks Agri-Treks Ep 10 – Agriculture in Arizona…Just Add Water
This episode of AgriTreks brings us back to the Casa Grande area of Arizona for a look at the most valuable commodity in the desert. Managing the distribution of water is pivotal in such an extreme environment. In an area where water is so valuable because of its scarcity, an industry like agriculture stands or… Read more »
Aqua Check Takes Soil Moisture Testing into the Digital Age
Variable rate technology has huge implications for the efficiency and productivity on the farm. Data collection and monitoring are key components in the application of that technology. Knowing the composition of your fields, the structure of your fields as what went into those fields is the information that makes VRT technology benefit your farm by… Read more »
My Trip to InfoAg a Precision Ag Conference in Springfield, Illinois
By Ken Coles, FarmingSmarter.com In July I attended the Precision Ag Conference in Springfield, Illinois. I though in my first blog post I would cover my thoughts and observations at the conference. Day 1 Last week Brent Nicol and I attended the infoag, precision ag conference in Springfield, Illinois. (www.infoag.org). Not being a seasoned… Read more »
Water, Agriculture & the Environment – Brent Paterson
This year it seems like water is really making it’s power known. From devastating us with floods and tsunamis, to crippling us by its absence in drought. As our population continues to grow, our management of that all important resource becomes essential. How we harness it, develop it store it and share it all have… Read more »
The Future of Water Management in Alberta with Roger Holm
As kids we used to laugh about people who bought bottled water. Who would pay for water! How about every nation on the planet. We need water on just about every level imaginable. It is a commodity that affects all other commodities. Droughts hurt crops, poor crops hurt supplies, demand for those supplies, in the… Read more »
AgExpo2011 – The Opportunity of Variable Rate Irrigation
Precision agriculture has become a much more popular production management on many farms in Canada. One of the newer precision technologies in the marketplace is precision irrigation. The idea is very similar to other variable rate technologies which allow for the prescription applications of inputs. In this case its about applying water to your crop… Read more »