How can you build soil organic matter? How long does it take and what’s the impact on yield? University of Guelph researcher Laura Van Eerd and Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) soil management specialist Anne Verhallen tackle these questions in this 2021 Ontario Diagnostic Days video report. The researchers visit Van Eerd’s… Read More

Cover crops deliver significant soil health and ground cover benefits, but they can often cause spring headaches when growers fail to kill them off in advance of corn and soybean planting. In this video report from Ontario Diagnostic Days 2021, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs soil management specialists Anne Verhallen and Jake… Read More

Whether or not you’re farming healthy soils depends on many things, says Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs soil specialist Anne Verhallen. When asked what makes a healthy soil, Verhallen says that growers need to think first about the qualities of their soil, including properties such as soil texture — are you farming… Read More

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

Buckle up, it’s time for Day 2 of Ontario Diagnostic Days! The annual Ontario field crop diagnostic days held at Ridgetown, Elora, and Winchester are again virtual in 2021. Cover crops, forage and wheat management is the focus of this episode. We get started with Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs soil management specialists… 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

We cover a lot of different agronomy topics here on RealAgriculture, but one area that doesn’t get attention all the time is cover crops. Anne Verhallen, soil specialist at OMAFRA, joins Bernard Tobin to discuss her recent presentation at Ontario Agriculture Conference, and why cover crop agronomy isn’t talked about all that often. “I think… Read More