Culture shift CASA director says safety needs to be incorporated as a cost/benefit in the farm’s bottom line
Reading Time: 3 minutes The death and injury statistics tell the tale — agriculture remains one of Canada’s most dangerous professions. All the industry’s efforts to improve the situation haven’t made any difference. In Alberta 16 people were killed in farm accidents in 2011 and three of them were under 18. Just as a comparison, among all the workers […] Read moreNew technologies mean new challenges for farm safety
What hit canola yields?
Reading Time: 2 minutes Aster yellows is taking the blame for the yield drop in canola this year, but Alberta Agriculture plant pathologist Mike Harding thinks there were other factors. The cool wet spring delayed seeding, so many crops were blooming when temperatures were over 30 C, Harding said. “Aster yellows cut yields in some crops,” he said. “But […] Read more
Irrigation pivots get a workout
Beets At the end of the September growers were still waiting for it be cool enough to pile
Reading Time: 2 minutes As with most others in the province, many southern Alberta farmers had the first harvest they can remember with no weather interruption, or even pressure to finish harvest before a rain shower. Some have run short of storage space, while others saw good early prospects dim after heat and dryness in July and August. Winter […] Read morePoppies for legal painkillers closer to reality for Alberta
Import replacement Lethbridge company sees locally grown product displacing imports from Europe and Australia
Reading Time: 3 minutes Poppies get a bad rap because of the opium variety used in the illegal drug trade, so it’s sometimes forgotten that they are also a source of important legal painkilling drugs. Canada is a major user of these painkillers, especially oxycodone and codeine, but this country neither grows poppies nor processes the narcotic raw materials […] Read moreSpray operators: It’s OK to hit the snooze button
Reading Time: 3 minutes The early bird gets the worm, and the best weed control, at least based on conventional wisdom that the best time to spray is when wind in lightest in the morning. But the results of trials by Farming Smarter, southern Alberta’s farm research group, indicate that spray operators don’t have to set their alarms quite […] Read more
Stripe rust found, start monitoring
Homegrown Stripe rust spores normally blow in from the U.S., but this infestation may have overwintered
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s very early to find such a severe infection,” he says. “And, from the strength of the pathogen so early in the season, we think it overwintered here. “We had heavy infestations last fall because of the stripe rust epidemic last year. This year, we’ve had cool, wet weather that’s favoured the pathogen, along with […] Read moreSeed treatment, other inputs pay off in winter wheat
Reading Time: 3 minutes Winter wheat is a low-input crop — if you want low returns — says Brian Beres, an Agriculture Canada research scientist leading a Prairie-wide study on winter wheat agronomy. “Winter wheat is like any other crop,” he says. “It needs decent inputs to perform to its potential.” Beres’s team is working to develop an integrated […] Read more
Beet growers looking at marketing options
Reading Time: 2 minutes Southern Alberta sugar beet growers have been unanimous in their support of their marketing group in their negotiations with Rogers Sugar, but in the long run they want to see more marketing options. The Rogers Sugar factory is the only plant producing sugar from beets in Canada. Its parent company, Lantic Inc. also owns cane-based […] Read more
Sugar beet growers agree to new contract
Reading Time: 2 minutes Negotiations that saw growers, plant officials, workers and businesses in Taber and other irrigation towns staring into the possibility of the closing of the Rogers Sugar factory in Taber have concluded with an agreement between growers and the sugar company. Sugar prices have been at record highs — up to 33 cents a pound — […] Read more
Get to know active ingredients to fight herbicide resistance
multi-pronged attack Weed scientist urges farmers to “hit resistant weeds with many little hammers”
Reading Time: 3 minutes Many herbicides about to go off patent are now for sale under new names, and producers are being urged to read labels more closely. “You definitely should check the mode of action group of the herbicide before you use it,” said Agriculture Canada weed scientist Hugh Beckie. “But you may also want to use a […] Read moreCyber-Savvy Farmer
