Precision agriculture company Farmers Edge has plans to disrupt the crop insurance industry, announcing an agreement with global reinsurer PartnerRe on Tuesday. The four-year deal will see Farmers Edge and PartnerRe jointly develop new agriculture insurance products based on field data that Farmers Edge already collects for agronomic reasons. “For the longest time we’ve been… Read More

Will the growth of cover crops lead to an explosion of plugged tile drains? According to Ohio State professor and farm drainage specialist Dr. Larry Brown, there’s little evidence to suggest that cover crops are going to cause drainage headaches for farmers. At the recent Ontario Certified Crop Advisors annual meeting, Brown says he often gets… Read More

Mole drainage is a concept for reducing waterlogging in heavy clay soils by creating underground tunnels for water, similar to tile drainage, but without the cost of pipe. The subsurface drains are created using a single-shank plow with a cylindrical “torpedo” attached at the bottom, leaving a channel for water to flow along, generally at… Read More

The Saskatchewan Water Security Agency’s preliminary forecast for spring runoff underlines the concerns about dryness in the heart of the prairie region. Soils in southern areas were dry at freeze up with ample storage available in wetlands after a record dry summer in parts of southern Saskatchewan and below normal fall precipitation. “With dry fall… Read More

Many Ontario corn fields have high levels of variability; soil profiles can change from sand to highly productive loam in a matter of footsteps. One way to tackle this variability is to identify management zones in the field and plant multiple hybrids at variable rates. In this episode of RealAgriculture Corn School, we catch up… Read More

Every year the planning committee behind Edmonton’s renowned FarmTech conference recognizes someone who has made “an outstanding contribution to Alberta’s cropping industry.” This year’s award recipient is well-known to the agriculture community for his commitment to extension, people, and the industry he loves. Scott Meers graduated from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor’s Degree… Read More

Timing a white mould fungicide application in soybeans can be tricky business. The typical recommendation is to spray a first-pass fungicide at the R2 to R2.5 stage. Most Ontario soybean fields, however, are highly variable and can contain plants progressing at different growth rates within the stand. How can you tackle this challenge? BASF technical… Read More

Regulations, by their nature, are country or region specific, but they can have spillover effects into other markets. This is the case with many crop protection products between trading partners — a ban or restriction in one region can have trickle-down impacts on use and even access in another. Many North American farmers have been… Read More

Switch to longer rotations, reduce soil movement, grow resistant varieties — the list of keys to managing against clubroot disease has become familiar for many canola growers in Western Canada, but an Alberta farmer with years of experience farming with high clubroot concentrations has another piece of advice: don’t be afraid to talk about it…. Read More

India’s government has made it even more expensive to export products — including pulse crops — into the country. On Tuesday, India announced a 10 percent increase to its duty on chickpeas, raising the import tariff from 30 to 40 percent. The move comes days after the India’s finance minister introduced a new surcharge to… Read More

The price of wheat is down, yes, but there are premiums for protein, and RealAgriculture agronomist Peter Johnson thinks there’s an opportunity to cash in. In this episode of the Wheat School, Johnson looks at new nitrogen research from University of Manitoba researcher Amy Mangin. It provides evidence of how growers can pump up their protein… Read More

 

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