Managing nitrogen fertilizer is a balancing of economic considerations, yield goals, and environmental implications. With both increased fertilizer prices and scrutiny on N fertilizer emissions, this episode of The Agronomists tackles the loss pathways and management tools required to minimize them. Our experts for this conversation are John Heard of Manitoba Agriculture, Peter Johnson of… Read More
Tag: John Heard
Thanks for joining us and making RealAg Radio a part of your day. Join RealAgriculture’s Kelvin Heppner, as he talks with Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, on the nitrogen fertilizer emissions policy, John Heard of Manitoba Agriculture on what research shows about different practices and products that reduce emissions from fertilizer, and also with… Read More
From a crop nutrition perspective, nitrogen losses as N2O or nitrous oxide pale in comparison to what’s lost in N2 form, but N2O has a much greater impact on the total greenhouse gas emissions from fertilizer. As part of this Wheat School episode filmed at Manitoba Crop Diagnostic School, Manitoba Agriculture’s John Heard shares a… Read More
Here’s to hoping everyone had a great Easter weekend! We are excited to be back with another episode of The Agronomists. We’re hitting the ground running with this week’s topic: nitrogen management. More specifically, this episode is focused on managing N losses and products that potentially help reduce some of those losses. This week’s panel… Read More
Hopefully you had a great weekend, whatever that meant for you. Just like that, it’s Monday again. The positive of Monday on RealAg Radio, means we get to talk all things agronomy! Host Shaun Haney has a great lineup for you. You’ll hear: Peter Sikkema of the University of Guelph — Ridgetown Campus, on glyphosate… Read More
When it comes to applying nitrogen fertilizer, agronomists have to help determine the right rate, right placement, the right time, and the rate form of N to protect the environment and feed the crop. The backdrop to those decisions include the farm setup, soil test results, yield goals, and product availability. There’s also that key… Read More
Welcome to Agronomic Monday, packed to the rafters with content. On today’s edition of RealAg Radio, you’ll hear: John Heard, soil fertility specialist with Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development, on the risks of growing soybeans on fields with excess nitrates; Kim Brown-Livingston, weed specialist with Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development, on the discovery of palmer… Read More
Drought in 2021 has caused some crops to not use all of the available nutrients in soil, and soil tests suggest that some fields have elevated soil nitrate levels. High soil nitrate levels can pose a problem for next year’s soybean crop, as they can prevent nodulation from happening which could prove a problem later… Read More
If you’re looking at the price of fertilizer and growing conditions and wondering if it’s the year to either pull rates back or put the hammer down, this episode of The Agronomists is for you. Host Lyndsey Smith is joined by John Heard, soil fertility specialist with Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development, and Steph Berlett,… Read More
You sent some soil samples away, whether it was from your own farm or on behalf of a farmer, and now you have the results. How do you begin to fully understand the results? What you do with the results can make or break some (expensive!) decisions. For this episode of The Agronomists, Ryan Benjamins… Read More
The practice of split-applying nitrogen through the growing season has been increasing throughout U.S. midwest corn states and in Eastern Canada. In Western Canada, about 20 percent of corn growers in Manitoba have adopted the in-season practice, according to newly-released results of a survey conducted by the Manitoba Corn Growers. In this episode of RealAgriculture… Read More
Excess water after heavy rains in parts of Western Canada is not only impairing plant growth through oxygen deficiency, but it’s also causing significant nitrogen losses. As John Heard, soil fertility specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, explains in this video, N losses depend on soil type, with rain causing leaching in sandier soils and more denitrification… Read More
A science textbook will tell you the intense energy surrounding a lightning bolt causes a reaction between oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere that results in rain depositing nitric acid on the soil, where it becomes a usable form of nitrogen fertilizer for plants. On Twitter and in coffee shops, farmers sometimes give lightning credit for a field “greening up” after… Read More
Manitoba’s inaugural Canolapalooza was held earlier this week in Portage, a combination of a canola field day and a summer festival, complete with mini-golf, a movie theatre and mud wrestling. Or mud arm wrestling, to be specific. Manitoba Mud Wrestling Federation-sanctioned referee John Heard joined Kelvin Heppner to discuss their soil-themed contribution to the field day… Read More
Farmers are dealt a hand of cards each year. There are cards of fortune and cards of misfortune. Maybe it’s a wet spring or corn prices below $4/bu or skyrocketing fertilizer costs. Maybe you get all three in the same hand. A farmer can’t always choose what they’re dealt, but they can choose how to respond…. Read More