Much has changed on the Ontario soil conservation front since 1987. No-till farming has been firmly entrenched, most farms in the province now proudly tout their own Environmental Farm Plan, and soil health is recognized as key to a $13 billion food economy that fuels 800,000 jobs. It’s a 30-year journey that Harold Rudy captures… Read more »
Category: Tillage
The great corn stalk challenge: what’s your solution?
Corn stalks have become a significant management challenge for many growers. Better corn hybrids, higher yields, bigger plants, and fewer corn borers to break down stalks mean more farmers are turning to tillage to tackle crop residue. At Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show (COFS), a host of tillage manufacturers and retailers took to a harvested corn… Read more »
John Deere rolls out ‘variable-intensity’ tillage tool
Adaptable is perhaps the best word to describe John Deere’s new variable-intensity tillage tool. Farmers hovered around the 2660VT at the Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa, this week as Jarred Karnei, Deere’s tactical marketing manager for tillage equipment, demonstrated many of the the tillage tool’s features. In the video below, Karnei explains that the key to the… Read more »
How far does your favourite implement move soil?
You can’t always see it, but each implement that runs through soil moves it a certain amount. Soil moving from one area to another, such as from a hilltop to the bottom of slope, is called tillage erosion. You might be surprised to see just how far (and how much) soil moves, depending on implement… Read more »
Degelman adds seeding capability to Pro-Till disc
Farmers are always thinking of ways to be more efficient: why make two or three passes through the field if you only need one? Degelman developed its Pro-Till to work land that had to be brought into shape, but farmers started asking if they could do more with this piece of equipment, explains Laird McLeod,… Read more »
Corn School: Aqua-Till trades coulter for water jet
Ever consider replacing your planter disc openers with high-pressured water jets? The concept is called aqua-till. The idea has been pioneered by the South Australian NoTill Farmers Association (SANTFA). Earlier this week, SANTFA research and development manager Greg Butler traveled north to Ontario to showcase the technology for farmers attending the annual FarmSmart Expo near… Read more »
Soybean School: Planting twin rows in strip till
Strip tillage in corn is growing in popularity in Ontario, but we don’t often see the tillage strategy employed in soybeans. On this episode of RealAgriculture’s Soybean School, AGRIS Co-operative agronomist Dale Cowan takes us to a strip-tilled field, which features twin row, 7.5-inch soybeans planted on 30-inch centres. In the field, Cowan’s bother, Larry… Read more »
Soybean School: Scout to evaluate your stand and when to go rolling
What’s your strategy when scouting a newly emerged soybean field? When Agromart Group agronomist Steph Kowalski walks into a soybean field this time of year, the first thing she looks to assess is final emergence and population. “It’s important to know how well we got that seed into the ground,” Kowalski tells RealAgriculture’s Bernard Tobin… Read more »
TechTour: Väderstad’s ultra-shallow disc cultivator in action
In recent years we’ve seen dramatic shifts into the areas of low-till and no-till. And now, Väderstad is offering another option with its Carrier lineup of disc cultivators — ultra-shallow tillage. “The idea behind this is when the farmer has done his combining, especially after oilseed…if he do a very shallow tillage then (and with that we… Read more »
Kinze tackles tillage with high-speed Mach Till disc
Kinze Manufacturing is adding tillage equipment to its planters and grain cart lineup. The company has teamed up with Saskatchewan-based Degelman Industries to market the new Mach Till high-speed disc. Susanne Veatch, Kinze’s president and chief marketing officer says the Mach Till is best described as “hybrid horizontal tillage” rather than vertical tillage. “The Mach Till… Read more »
Connections key to building soil organic matter
There’s consensus that healthy soils with higher organic matter deliver a range of benefits from supplying nutrients, to building soil structure, to increasing water-holding capacity, and reducing erosion. But are enough farmers taking the required steps to increase soil health and organic matter? United States Department of Agriculture research agronomist Shannon Osbourne believes a stronger working… Read more »
TechTour: Kuhn spices up the plow with sectional control
Perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects of plowing land is the bumpy ride around the headlands that follows. That’s where Kuhn’s Vari-Master Smart Plow comes in. The Smart plow offers sectional control through an electro-hydraulic system which automatically raises and lowers individual bodies based on GPS positioning data, creating a straight furrow edge where… Read more »
TechTour: Soil sensor enables real-time variable depth tillage
A soil sensor that can detect compaction from above the ground in real-time is enabling a concept described as “variable depth tillage” for targeting compacted layers. The Topsoil Mapper made by Austria-based Geoprospectors is an example of a real-time sensor allowing farmers to account for variability as their tractor passes through a field, rather than… Read more »
Choosing the right cultivator for your farm
What should farmers look for when planning to purchase a new cultivator? There’s been plenty of cultivator innovation in recent years that farmers need to consider, says agronomist Pat Lynch, who hosted the annual tillage demonstration at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show in Woodstock, Ontario. This year manufacturers showed off secondary cultivation units set to finish… Read more »
Morris Industries gets new ownership and investment
Saskatoon-based Morris Industries has undergone a change in ownership, with private investors injecting new capital into the farm equipment manufacturer. Ben Voss, together with Calgary-based Avrio Capital and Lamont Brown Group, have acquired a majority stake in the business from outgoing CEO Casey Davis. Voss, who’s served as president since 2015, has also replaced Davis… Read more »