When talking soil, often the topic focus is on soil type, nutrients, moisture, or microbiology. But what about soil structure? As Steve Larocque, Alberta farmer and founder of Beyond Agronomy explains in this Soil School episode, the physical types of soil can’t be changed, whether it be sand, silt, or clay. However, how land is… Read More
Tag: Steve Larocque
Adjusting management or adopting new products or varieties carries some risk, but that risk can be managed with an on-farm evaluation. Setting up on-farm trials, however, can be simple and straight forward — or so complicated it’s hard to know if you really learned anything at all. To navigate on-farm trial pitfalls and successes, this… Read More
It’s not often that we hear about first-generation farmers. It’s also rare to hear about someone picking up and moving provinces to begin to farm, but that’s what Steve Larocque did, moving from near Greely, Ontario, to eventually farm at Three Hills, Alberta. Larocque isn’t just any grain farmer, either. Admittedly, he’s small scale and… Read More
As the crop gets out of the ground, farmers across Canada look to hit the field and evaluate the start of the 2018 growing season. There are those who make great crop scouts, those who are a little more average, and some pretty poor crop scouts — what sets the great scouts apart? We asked… Read More
Can we push feed and even malt barley varieties to sky-high yields? Steve Larocque, of Beyond Agronomy, has completed a four-year field trial that says yes, but there’s a catch. Inspired by what he saw on a 2010 trip to New Zealand, where feed barley averaged 207 to 210 bushels per acre, Larocque started digging… Read More
In Western Canada in 2016 there were some highs and very low lows of dry weather, too much rain, high crop tonnage and then a crazy harvest full of adversity that is yet to wrap up. At the recent Bayer Agronomy summit, Shaun Haney wrangled up an agronomy geeks panel of some real keeners. Joining… Read More
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again, the sprayer is really a multi-purpose tool on the modern farm. From pre-seed burn-off, to in-crop protection and fertility applications, to post-harvest, the sprayer rarely sits still on the farm. Because it’s involved throughout the entire growing season, the sprayer could potentially be a great place… Read More
Steve Laroque is starting to see some significant differences on his farm north of Drumheller, Alta., after three consecutive years of practicing controlled traffic farming. After learning some hard lessons in the first few seasons — their measurements were off when setting up a hitch for inter-row seeding — 2012 offered a glimpse at some… Read More