Fall and early winter are a great time for testing soil and seed and analyzing those results, to begin planning for the next growing season. Often, we do all of this planning but then never take the time during the year to check and see if we could be doing better or if the plan… Read More
Tag: Shane Thomas
The 2013 growing season was one of the most productive on record for Western Canada. There were big crops of everything from peas, to canola, to cereals. Durum and hard red spring wheat crops were huge on many farms. While this is good news for farmers (as long as they can get the crop moved),… Read More
2013 was a big year for western Canadian cereal crops, and with big yield can come big problems with toppling over. Lodging risk is a complicated mixture of genetics, a nutrient imbalance, nutrient deficiency, improper seeding rate or a combination of these factors. Having all those things in check is key, but if you still… Read More
Seed is one of the most important inputs that farmers use all year. The difference between a good crop and a bad crop can be the quality of seed put into the ground, yet seed is not often given much thought, if at all. Just like soil testing or tissue testing, a seed test can… Read More
A frost in mid-September isn’t unexpected, but the damage caused varies widely, depending on a number of factors. Just because the temperatures dip doesn’t mean that your immature crop is a write-off. Crop type, maturity and length of time the temp sat below freezing all play a role in the final damage done. The first… Read More
Harvest is a great time to choose next year’s canola variety, and not just because the seed booking season seems to start earlier and earlier each year. The yield monitor is one way to evaluate how varieties perform on your farm, and being wowed or disappointed might be the first step in selecting next year’s… Read More
With harvest getting underway or very near in many parts of the prairies it is an exciting time for many farmers and industry individuals. Even though the most important information — yield — will be in your hands soon, there is still a lot of other pieces of data that you can learn from the… Read More
There are constantly new technologies being discovered that can have a positive impact on agricultural production. It seems every week there is something to get excited about when it comes to scientific breakthroughs. One of the big topics of late has been nitrogen-fixing bacteria that isn’t host specific to leguminous plants. The implications of this technology… Read More
30 degree C days are great for the lake life, but not so great for crop yields. Many of the crops grown across Western Canada are known as “cool season” crops, even though this may seem misleading as 25 degrees C may not seem all that “cool.” Most western Canadian crops really do prefer temperatures… Read More
The wheat midge (Sitodiplosis mosellana) is a pest found in wheat that can have significant impacts on your yields and grain quality. These insects overwinter as larvae and emerge as adults from their pupal stage in late June to early July (typically 600-900 growing degree days (GDD), ask your agronomist how many GDD`s we have… Read More