Mike Dorion calls himself ‘the compost kid’ and he believes farmers should think about their fields like he does his garden. The founder of Calgary-based Living Soil Solutions doesn’t suggest cash crop farmers use tea leaves to improve soil health, but he does preach the benefits of reducing tillage, banking organic matter to help increase… Read more »
Category: Tillage
Wheat Pete’s Word, March 22: Episode 100 Tackles Snirt, Early Fertility Applications, Sulphur Forms and More
Ladies and gentlemen, farmers and agronomists, we’ve hit triple digits! That’s right, this week’s episode of Wheat Pete’s Word is number 100, and from all of us here at RealAgriculture thank you for following along and making this podcast a huge success in a short time. Host Peter Johnson has made the most of this… Read more »
Coulter Option Delivers High Speed and Low Disturbance
Case IH is equipping its Nutri-Placer 930 fertilizer applicator with new high-speed, low disturbance coulters the company claims will help the unit provide a superior field finish at speeds up to 11 mph. At that speed, Case IH says operators can cover 510 acres in a 12-hour day for increased productivity, lower tractor hours and… Read more »
Wheat Pete’s Word, March 8: Winter Wheat Survival, Tillage and OM, and Phos Draw Down
Peter Johnson is back from his agriculture mission in Zambia, and ready to rock and roll with this week’s edition of Wheat Pete’s Word. From how different organic matter additions can speed up or slow down residue breakdown, to why rotation matters so very much, to a talk on phosphorus as-applied vs. actual, Johnson gets… Read more »
AccuTurn Makes Headland Turning Hands-Free
Case IH wants to help farmers take the guesswork out of turning on headlands. The company says tractor operators can now use its new AccuTurn automatic headland turning technology to navigate hands-free, automatic, repeatable turns for increased productivity and reduced operator fatigue. Case IH unveiled the Advanced Farming Systems (AFS) auto guidance technology last week… Read more »
Healthy Soil Will Eat Your Underwear
How healthy is your soil? If you want to know all you have to do is bury your underwear, says Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) soil management specialist Adam Hayes. Last summer, Hayes helped members of the Renfrew County Soil and Crop Improvement Association bury underwear in their fields to determine the… Read more »
New Holland Agriculture Completes Acquisition of Kongskilde Agriculture
Following the announcement made in October, New Holland Agriculture is set to expand its wide offering with new implement product lines, as CNH Industrial completed the acquisition of the agricultural Grass and Soil business of Kongskilde Industries, part of the Danish Group Dansk Landbrugs Grovvareselskab (DLG A.m.b.A.). See More: Past Content on New Holland The… Read more »
Going Shallow? Let’s Talk Tickle Tillage
Two inches. That’s deep enough tillage for Dutton, Ontario, farmer Dave Durham. He uses a Great Plains Turbo-Max vertical tillage unit to “tickle” a wide rage of soils on his farm, including muck, sand and clays. In the latest episode of Real Agriculture’s Tillage Talk, agronomists Peter Johnson and Al McCallum quiz Durham about his… Read more »
How Deep Ripping Can Make A Compaction Problem Worse
If it’s done right, deep ripping can help address a compaction problem in the field, but if you’re not careful, it can also make it worse. As with any kind of tillage, you have the potential of breaking up soil aggregates with a deep ripper or subsoiler, but that’s not all, notes Aaron Daigh, soil… Read more »
Tillage Talk: Does Deep Ripping Fit Your Farm?
Duane Paton is considered one of the founding fathers of deep ripping in Ontario. The Mount Elgin based farmer purchased his first deep ripper – a Case IH ecolo-tiger 730B – back in 1998 and still uses the same unit today. In the latest instalment of our Tillage Talk video series Real Agriculture agronomist Peter… Read more »
When Deep Ripping Might be Your Best Bet (Plus What It Will & Won’t Fix)
The struggle to get the crop off in wet conditions has left its scars on fields across parts of Western Canada, leaving farmers with tough decisions on how to manage ruts and soil compaction. A deep ripper or subsoiler might have a fit in helping fix the damage, says a biosystems engineering professor from the University… Read more »
Kongskilde Deal Sees New Holland Expand Tillage and Forage Lineup
New Holland plans to add tillage equipment to its product lineup after signing a deal to purchase Kongskilde Industries’ tillage and forage equipment business. The Danish company manufactures and sells farm equipment under several brands, including Kongskilde, Överum and JF. “The acquisition of the tillage and hay and forage activities of Kongskilde adds a key… Read more »
Trading Your Plow for a CurseBuster
Arthur, Ontario farmer Carl Brubacker has had it with the plow. Over the years, Brubacker has seen too much erosion and watched his topsoil layer get thinner and thinner. “We try plowing shallower every year and we just keep bringing up stones.” Brubacker says plowing is not going to work long-term. “We’re looking for simplicity… Read more »
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 »
Let ‘er Rip! Subsoiling is Back
Twenty years ago agronomist Pat Lynch had no love for subsoiling and deep rippers. But times have changed and so has Lynch’s view. As 10 different deep rippers tore across a field at the Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show tillage demo earlier this week, Lynch told the gathered crowd that the evolution of farming over the past… Read more »