Disease management can make or break any given crop year, and on this episode of the Pulse School we are taking a look at chickpeas and the most important disease to scout for, ascochyta blight. Dr. Michelle Hubbard is a research scientist in pulse pathology with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. She says disease prevention starts before putting… Read More
Category: Intercropping
We all know here’s more than one way to achieve a goal, and farming is no exception. Four years ago RealAgriculture caught up with an Indiana farmer pioneering relay and intercropping; fast forward to today and that same farmer is getting creative, now incorporating livestock into the mix. Jason Mauck was one of many in… 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
More than success, failure is a great teacher. Still, most people don’t want to openly talk about their mistakes and instead focus on what worked well. When it comes to cover crop use in Western Canada, only talking about what worked well won’t get us to wide-spread adoption. At the same time, a “that will… Read More
Farm conference season is a time to learn new things, ask questions, and lay out plans for what you might try out on your farm this year. It can also be a super busy time for those who attend meetings, but for some who speak to the various crowds it can also bounce you around… Read More
Intercropping has become a hot topic at a lot of farm shows and workshops lately. One particular conference that stood out, was the inaugural intercropping workshop held at Brandon, Man. The workshop was put on by the Prairie Organic Grain Initiative, the Manitoba government, Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers, and the Manitoba Organic Association. Lana… Read More
From beginning with just small test plots, to having more than half of their current land base as an intercrop, the Whites say their farming journey has been all about learning from nature. Fifth generation farmers, Brooks and Jen White call the deep southwest corner of Manitoba — near the town of Pierson — home. Crops they… Read More
If you decided to incorporate intercropping to your farm plan this year, there’s some good and some slightly bad news for you, if you live in Manitoba. During this past week’s intercropping workshop held at Brandon, Man., Matthew Wiens, land management specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, told producers there’s funding available for those who chose to… Read More
The resolution at which farm equipment can treat a field continues to shrink, automatically adjusting rates on-the-fly to account for variability in a field rather than treating an entire field the same. To use an inkjet printer analogy, today’s equipment is increasingly capable of “printing” pixels that are only metres or even centimetres in size rather than… Read More
Interested in growing camelina for Three Farmers? Get ready to intercrop. Three Farmers, a Saskatchewan-based snack food company, is offering, for the first time, production contracts for camelina, an oilseed crop. A stipulation of the contract is that camelina be grown in tandem with either pea or lentil. Likely the first-of-its-kind stipulation in a crop… Read More
Intercropping — the concept of growing multiple crops together (intentionally!) — can sound overwhelming, messy and complicated for many of us accustomed to growing one crop at a time. Which crops should be grown together? How do we separate them after harvest? Hang on, how do we harvest them? And seeding? How do you manage… Read More