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
Category: Soil Compaction
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
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
Agronomically speaking, soil compaction is — and should be —at the forefront of farmers’ minds. RealAgriculture’s resident agronomist Peter “Wheat Pete” Johnson isn’t new to speaking on or dealing with the topic, but as the years go on, there seems to be more solutions to dealing with compaction as we understand it more. The need… Read More
While eastern Ontario is expected up to 50 cm of snow over the next few days, other parts of the province are starting to tap maple trees and get the frost-seeding equipment ready. It may be the last week of February, but there’s some serious spring fever happening all over the country! In the west,… Read More
For years, Tim Williams has dutifully planted crops to the edge of the trees and bush that line the fields he farms near Petrolia, Ont. Every year, he looks at his yield maps to see the same red line indicating no crop yield in these areas that hug the bush and woodlots. But today there… Read More
Five years ago, Carl Brubacher decided it was time to change how he manages soil on his Arthur, Ont., hog and grain farm. With highly variable soil ranging from sand to heavy clay, he was determined to improve soil health and make the farm more sustainable. In this premiere episode of RealAgriculture’s Soil School, sponsored… Read More
Strip till corn is helping Mark Brock build a winning management system for his Staffa, Ont., farm. Brock started strip tilling back in 2015 with the objective of integrating manure from the farm’s chicken operation into a system that would help manage compaction, and further improve soil organic matter with the addition of cover crops…. Read More
As May 15 approaches and the rain continues to fall across Ontario, growers need to start thinking about whether they should be dialling back their chosen soybean maturity range. Research shows growing a longer-season variety can put an additional four to five bushels in the bin if they’re planted by mid-May, says AGRIS Co-operative agronomist… Read More
For anyone that’s ever done an agriculture diploma or degree, there’s likely a course that elicited groans when you’d see it on the schedule. For some it’s likely communications, for others maybe statistics, but for many it’s soil science. That was the case for Marla Riekman, which is ironic, given that she now serves as… Read More