Keep your soil covered, do as little tillage as possible, maintain a living root system 365 days a year, and fit it all into an economic model that makes money: this is sustainable soil health. It’s a challenge, for sure, but it’s one Dresden, Ont., farmer Woody Van Arkel is happy to tackle. On this… Read More
Nitrogen is drives growth and crop yield — it’s also expensive and prone to being lost from the soil. There’s so many combinations of the right rate, place, form, and time, that N management is always a hot topic for discussion. This episode of The Agronomists features Greg Stewart, lead agronomist of Maizex Seeds, and… Read More
It’s time for our premiere episode of The Agronomists! This hour long, prime-time live show will run every Monday evening and be full of commentary, insight, and likely a few laughs. For this first episode, we kick things off with Peter “Wheat Pete” Johnson, RealAgriculture agronomist, and Marla Riekman, soil specialist with Manitoba Agriculture and… Read More
Soil management, soil structure, and soil health have all become incredibly important topics in all crop and pasture planning conversations. Many of those conversations centre on one particularly complicated topic: carbon. What is it? How do we add it to soil? How do we keep it there? If there’s one person who can at least… Read More
Whenever the RealAg team gets to visit Agritechnica in Germany, central tire inflation system technologies seem to be everywhere. It’s not as common over on this continent, and there’s a lot of discussion surrounding the “why not” of having it. However, our resident agronomist Peter “Whete Pete” Johnson recently found some evidence of the positives… Read More
A land and cattle operation that includes consistent cover crops in a diverse cropping mix can offer several benefits, including improved soil fitness, better equipment and water holding capacity, and a decreased diesel fuel bill. In this episode of the Soil School, Bernard Tobin is joined by Elmwood, Ont.-based Ken Schaus from Schaus Land and… Read More
It’s time for Day 8, our final episode of the virtual Ontario Diagnostic Days! To wrap up the series, RealAgriculture LIVE! host Shaun Haney is joined by Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) plant pathologist Albert Tenuta, and University of Guelph associate professor Dave Hooker. During the broadcast, Tenuta looks back at… Read More
As combines roll across Ontario, growers are harvesting impressive crops that in many cases are producing record yields. But with all that excitement, it’s important to remember the impact those huge yields will have on nutrient removal and what they take out of your soil bank account. On this episode of RealAgriculture’s Soil School, Brussels… Read More
It’s the last day of September, and we figured we’d end it off with a bang! Today’s guest on RealAg LIVE! is really live in studio with host Shaun Haney — Dr. Ross McKenzie. McKenzie is a retired researcher and soil scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, and one of the original go-to’s when Haney… Read More
It’s time for Day 4 of the virtual Ontario Diagnostic Days! This week we focus on soil snippets — a series of soil management insights delivered by a host of Ontario soil researchers, agronomists, and extension specialists. The lineup includes Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs soil management specialists Anne Verhallen and Sebastian… Read More
As many soybean growers are well aware, soybeans have a unique ability to biologically fix their own nitrogen (N) in a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria, Bradyrhizobium japonicum. Inoculant containing the bacteria can either be applied on the seed or to the soil at planing, and then as the crop is putting on vegetation and… Read More
A few of our pea fields looked a bit pale in comparison to the others earlier this season. The crop colour was off, and not just in low lying spots, as one might expect with all the moisture west central Saskatchewan has received. On further investigation, ruling out other reasons like fertility and plant stand,… Read More
A&L Canada Laboratories Inc. is expanding its diagnostic tool offering with the addition of a soil microbe test, VitTellus BioSM. The test quantifies soil microbial populations that have been shown to improve soil health and greater crop productivity, the company says. VitTellus BioSM utilizes selective carbon sources to measure the concentration of specific functional microbial… Read More
Have you ever wondered what the carbon offset value is of those shelterbelts on your land? A new app developed by researchers at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) may soon be able to help you estimate their economic value. “People tend to focus on the negative environmental aspects of farming such as the greenhouse gases… Read More
Soil compaction is always going to be a hot topic following a trying harvest season. That holds true for much of the eastern Prairies and northern U.S. states this spring. Aaron Daigh, assistant professor of Soil Physics at North Dakota State University says that the 2019 growing season started off wet in the spring, which… Read More
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