Glacier FarmMedia — Saskatchewan soil scientist Les Henry, well known for his work on improving Prairie farmland and his outreach to Prairie farmers in the pages of Grainews, has died. Ending a long fight with congestive heart failure, Henry died Friday in Saskatoon at age 83, having continued to write until very shortly before his […] Read more
Prairie soil scientist and author Les Henry, 83
Henry's outreach to farmers spanned more than half a century
Know your soil, right down to the DNA
New soil tool called a ‘game changer’ for agronomic decisions
Reading Time: 4 minutes If this was a police procedural, DNA taken from the scene of a crime would help lock away the bad guy. Here, the scene is a field, the farmer is the hero, and the bad guy might be a hidden crop disease that the farmer can arrest because DNA samples warned him it was there. […] Read more
Feds, Manitoba pledge $6.4M to ag research facility
The new facility will modernize crop and soil research and training at the University of Manitoba
The Federal and Manitoba governments have thrown their weight behind development of a facility touted to become Canada’s pre-eminent resource for field crop research. “A great deal of our agriculture industry’s success comes from research and skill development,” said federal ag minister Marie-Claude Bibeau in a news release, Tuesday. Bibeau and Derek Johnson, Manitoba’s minister […] Read more
It’s still ‘wait and see’ country when it comes to biostimulants
A multi-year study has found some products work sometimes on some crops -- but it’s hit-and-miss
Reading Time: 3 minutes Biostimulants work. Sort of. Sometimes. Depending. Dubbed the ‘vitamin supplements of farming,’ there are a wide range of biostimulants and they work — or don’t — in a host of different ways. Sometimes they’re worth applying and sometimes not, suggests a three-year study by Farming Smarter. “We did see an increase in yield for some […] Read more
New dean of agriculture named for U of S
Soil science prof Angela Bedard-Haughn takes over Aug. 15
One of Western Canada’s major post-secondary ag institutions will get a new hand at the wheel this summer. The University of Saskatchewan announced Wednesday it has named soil science professor Angela Bedard-Haughn as the dean for its College of Agriculture and Bioresources for a five-year term starting Aug. 15. Raised on a family farm in […] Read more
Underwear campaign fun with a serious purpose
The goal is to promote awareness that soils are living, breathing entities — and need protection
Reading Time: 2 minutes It seems like just a fun, even silly, thing to do — bury a pair of underwear made of white cotton, and then dig them up a couple of months later to see what soil microbes have done to them. But the Soil Your Undies campaign has a very serious purpose: To show people that […] Read more
This is some pretty special dirt
The unique collection of intact soil cross-sections is both a piece of history and a ‘priceless’ educational tool
Reading Time: 3 minutes A decades-old collection of ‘soil monoliths’ donated to Lethbridge College will be an invaluable tool for teaching students about soil. The 110 monoliths are vertical cross-sections about one metre long that show soil from a variety of regions in its natural state. Long been housed at Agriculture Canada’s Lethbridge research centre, the soil monoliths have […] Read more
Canada’s soil is in crisis — and change is needed, says advocate
Agronomy has ‘masked’ soil degradation, but the crunch is coming
Reading Time: 4 minutes The biggest crisis facing Canadian agriculture is right beneath our feet. “For the first time in history, we have the technology and tools to produce food in a sustainable way, yet farmers and their influencers cling to old ways and values,” said Don Lobb, an Ontario farmer and a longtime leader in the no-till and […] Read more
Clearwater County aims to cook up successful cover crop recipes
Cover crops offer many benefits but what’s the right mix of grasses, brassicas, and legumes?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Clearwater County has started experimenting with cover crops, and outlined some of their benefits during its recent West County Ag Tour. “It’s a great year to talk about cover crops because in order to maintain our moisture in the soil, we are going to need organic matter, which cover crops build. We are going to […] Read more
Interest in soil health is growing, but testing still lags
It’s only a minority of producers who are soil sampling and that mystifies a provincial crop specialist
Reading Time: < 1 minute Some producers may be looking at soil health a little differently, but there are still not a lot of them taking soil samples, says a provincial crop specialist. “Soil sampling gives you an evaluation of the nutrient levels in your soil,” said Mark Cutts of Alberta Agriculture and Forestry’s Stettler office. “If you know that […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
