According to Neil Harker, research assistant with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, wild oat management through herbicide application costs western Canadian producers around $500 million annually. Herbicide resistance in many weed biotypes is cropping up — resistance within wild oat populations has been nagging at farmers’ fields for years and is spreading. How can we combat… Read More
Tag: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
The Canadian Wheat Alliance was announced on May 16 and will provide $97M worth of funding over five years for wheat research. The effort will combine expertise from each of: the National Research Council, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the province of Saskatchewan and the University of Saskatchewan. “Wheat research has lagged a bit,” says Lyle… Read More
As more Manitoba farmers add soybeans into the crop rotation, it stands to reason that pests that attack the crop will begin showing up as well. Root rots — and there are so very many species that cause this — already exist in prairie soils, but just which species are here and what to do… Read More
Fusarium head blight. It’s one nasty disease that most of the Prairies was happy to consider a southern Manitoba problem. The troubling reality, however, is that the disease has been steadily marching west for quite some time, and while it’s not news that the disease has been found in Alberta and Saskatchewan, the incidence of… Read More
Earlier this week, I lined up an interview with Dr. Jeannie Gilbert, a plant pathologist at AAFC’s Cereal Research Centre, Winnipeg, Man. I wanted to speak with her about the threat of fusarium head blight for 2013 and what farmers can do now to prevent or manage the disease. When I arrived, I soon learned… Read More
Extending the grazing season past the warm weather months isn’t just a great way to save on fuel and time, it also can significantly reduce feeding costs. Bale and swath grazing or grazing stock-piled fields isn’t as difficult as it first appears, though some planning is required. RealAgriculture.com asked Dr. Vern Baron, with AAFC, and… Read More
The governments of Canada and Ontario are making a joint investment to help farmers adopt innovative and sustainable on-farm water management practices. That’s according to Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Ted McMeekin who jointly announced a new initiative that will focus on finding new technologies and solutions… Read More
Last week, the federal government announced three new Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada-based programs under the Growing Forward 2 banner — AgriInnovation, AgriMarketing and AgriCompetitiveness. While the press release outlines some details about the programs, the supplied information was a little light. RealAgriculture.com asked AAFC for further details. Below is the Q and A exchange (unedited)…. Read More
As far as we’ve come over the past 100 years, our progress creates some problems of it’s own. As cities expand and farmland moves into areas previously unpopulated, the natural balance of the local ecosystem is upset. Where natural events and wildlife used to keep things like willow stands from growing unchecked, it’s now up… Read More
Last year proved to be a unique situation for producers in Southern Alberta with regard to stripe rust. An over-wintering of the disease exposed producers to it earlier than usual with damaging results. Given the particularly mild winter across the prairies this year, producers should be on the lookout for stripe rust a lot earlier…. Read More