It’s time to talk soil health, nutrient management, and more on Day 5 of Ontario Diagnostic Days! The annual Ontario field crop diagnostic days held at Ridgetown, Elora, and Winchester are again virtual in 2021. Cover crops, soil compaction, topsoil sampling and soybean fertility are the focus of this episode. We’ll kick it off with cover… Read More
Larry Dyck is trying to make tough soil a little less tough. It may sound like a simple objective, but it’s been a 40 year journey for the cash cropper, who operates Campden Grain with his son Ben, near Campden on Ontario’s Niagara peninsula. Dyck, a member of the Ontario Soil Network, first started no-tilling… Read More
Members of the Ontario Soil Network are inviting complete strangers onto their farms — virtually, of course. Mel Luymes, communications and community director of the Ontario Soil Network, says that the Soil Road Trip allows farmers, researchers, or just those who are curious, to tour up to 100 fields and discover what each farmer is… Read More
It’s important to know what’s going well, and what’s not, especially with soil. Certain “canaries in the coalmine” can indicate existing, persistent problems with management practices that over time can be improved. Adam Ireland, who farms with his family near Teeswater in Bruce County, Ont., is joined by Bernard Tobin for this episode of Soil… Read More
Interest in building soil resiliency or measuring soil health is growing. But before jumping to complicated soil health tests, we first need to understand how the basic physical, chemical, and biological properties of a soil in combination with management practices will affect soil microbial populations. “You can’t take the genetic base, essentially, like the DNA… Read More
There are plenty of buzzwords in farming and agriculture. More than just a word, however, is soil resiliency: what does it mean to have “resilient” soil? For this episode of The Agronomists, host Lyndsey Smith is joined by Anne Verhallen and Marla Riekman to discuss what makes a healthy soil, what makes up soil quality… Read More
Long-term field research, conducted by the University of Guelph, has confirmed Solvita Soil Tests as valuable testing tools for evaluating soil health. Research results show that Solvita tests enabled a high level of certainty in “useful” cropping comparisons and correlated with soil carbon levels and total soil nitrogen. Solvita tests have the ability to capture… Read More
Regeneration Canada is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to raise awareness and catalyze systems of change towards regenerative land stewardship in the country. Through workshops, online education, and information materials available to the general public, farmers, ranchers, and land stewards, Regeneration Canada hopes to engage with all stakeholders involved in decision-making regarding land. But… Read More
Weather is the ultimate source for small talk, and rainfall is perhaps the most talked about — from how much, to when, to not enough, and on too much. For this episode of the Corn School, Bernard Tobin asks Dale Cowan, senior agronomist at AGRIS C0-operative, about how much rain a corn crop needs throughout… Read More
By Pierre Petelle We hear a lot about regenerative agriculture these days, but everyone has their own definition of what this term means. Some of these definitions focus too closely on practices and not on outcomes. At the end of the day, it’s all about soil health. I would define regenerative agriculture as any approach… Read More
Integrated pasture management can include practices such as grazing rotations, herbicide applications, fertility analysis, mechanical brush management, and regular pasture health assessments. Corteva Agriscience wants to use a systemic approach to highlight the soil health aspects of integrated pasture management. Isabelle Thibout, product manager for specialties at Corteva Agriscience, says that soil type, soil fertility,… Read More
What does it take to be a soil champion? If you’re Laura Van Eerd, professor at University of Guelph, Ridgetown campus, it means being curious about soil biology and crop production and constantly fascinated about what we have yet to learn about nutrient cycles, microbes, and more. Van Eerd considers herself lucky to be able… Read More
Plant Response, Inc., a biologicals focused company headquartered at Raleigh, N.C., recently announced its acquisition of WISErg. WISErg is a Seattle-area startup that has created a system for upcycling nutrients from food scraps. The nutrients can then be used in fertilizer and nutrient efficiency products that can enhance plant and soil health. The company has… Read More
The recently announced Bill C-290, the Soil Conservation Act, has many steps to pass through before becoming an act. The premise of the bill — supporting efforts to create a national soil health strategy, that soil is the foundation for sustainable food production, enhanced biodiversity, cleaner air and water, and are at the root of… Read More
Member of Parliament and NDP ag critic Alistair MacGregor has introduced Bill C-290, a Private Member’s bill titled the Soil Conservation Act. Citing the importance of soil as an essential resource to society and that healthy soils are the foundation of sustainable food production, MacGregor proposes the bill support the establishment of a national soil… Read More