The couple, who farm more than 4,000 acres near Hartney, southwest of Brandon, have been experimenting with split nitrogen applications — spreading their fertilizer across two or more passes during the season rather than front-loading everything at seeding.

For their corn acres in particular, the approach has helped them stay flexible when weather throws a curveball. Splitting nitrogen lets them spread out risk, workload and logistics through the season, Nathan Beernaert said.

“We’ve run off our residual early and been able to top up to where we needed to be later in the season. It’s saved our butt a couple times.”

WHY IT MATTERS: As well as being touted for reducing financial risk without hitting yields, split nitrogen application is among the practices caught up in the quest for fertilizer efficiency, assuming farmers can work it into their workflow.

The Beernaerts apply UAN 28-0-0 liquid nitrogen in season via drop nozzles, targeting the base of corn plants before tassel emergence. They’ve tried putting down 100, 50 and even zero per cent of their nitrogen needs at planting, followed with a mid-season top-off.

The results haven’t always been what they expected. One of their strongest corn crops came in a year when they applied no nitrogen at planting and put it all on later in a June–July pass, Nathan said.

“It went against a lot of the other experience we had doing that, and against some of the norms associated with nitrogen availability or crop uptake in corn.”

Research backs in-field experience

Splitting fertilizer applications is one of the identified best management practices rooted in 4R nutrient management philosophy, noted Xiaopeng Gao, professor of soil fertility at the University of Manitoba.

Holding back on some of the fertilizer at seeding can better match crop needs for nitrate requirements.

“Especially where the crops are small, they don’t need a lot of nitrogen at the beginning,” Gao said, adding that nitrogen applied later in the season matches the peak growth stages of the crop.

Why and how nitrogen gets lost

Across the Prairies, nitrogen use efficiency is often only about 50 to 60 per cent for the current year of application, meaning a large share of fertilizer isn’t taken up by the crop in the year it’s applied, Gao said.

Better timing can push that number higher, though there’s still a lack of data on exactly how much.

“If you can do a better job in terms of the 4Rs, especially if you can time the fertilizer supply better with the crop needs, that can improve the efficiency, maybe up to 70 per cent,” Gao said.

Nitrogen loss hits both at the farmer’s wallet and environmentally, and it happens through several pathways depending on soil type and location.

In Manitoba’s Red River Valley, with its heavy clay soils, nitrogen loss mainly happens through denitrification and the unfortunate transformation to nitrous oxide — the greenhouse gas at the heart of Western Canada’s fertilizer emissions debate and the government’s push to curb them. The risk is particularly high while ground is waterlogged during the spring melt.

On sandy soils, such as the potato lands around Carberry, the bigger risk is leaching. Shallow-rooted crops like potatoes, with their high nitrogen and water demands, are especially vulnerable to having the nitrogen they need leach away on coarse-textured ground with low water-holding capacity.

A third major loss pathway is ammonia volatilization — nitrogen escaping to the atmosphere when urea is broadcast on the soil surface rather than banded below ground.

“But if you can improve your placement by banding the soil, either side-banding or mid-row banding, that can effectively reduce the loss,” Gao said.

Other tools to reduce nitrogen loss

The Beernaerts are also considering nitrogen inhibitor products, which Gao said can make a real difference under the right conditions.

Enhanced efficiency fertilizers fall into two main categories: polymer-coated products like ESN, which slow down nitrogen release over time, and inhibitor-based products that include urease inhibitors and nitrification inhibitors.

The benefit of inhibitors is most pronounced when conditions are already driving significant nitrogen loss — a warm, wet early growing season, or in low-lying areas of a field prone to ponding and denitrification.

“Under that condition, if you use some inhibitor products, that will reduce the loss,” Gao said.

Under normal conditions though, if the nitrogen loss is already minimal, farmers shouldn’t expect a benefit by using those products, he added.

“It depends on the soil condition, the landscape and also the environment conditions,” Gao said.

Thinking beyond the next season

For the Beernaerts, nitrogen management is not just about the economics of a single season. With nitrogen making up roughly a quarter of their input costs, and prices that can spike suddenly based on global events, efficiency matters.

It’s also about setting up the farm for the long term.

“We want to set ourselves up for the future succession of the operation,” Chelsi Beernaert said. “We want to know that it’s in a good position to be left when we’re not around.”

The post Split nitrogen applications help Prairie grain farm manage risk and efficiency appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

A University of Guelph-funded global study tracking 61 unfertilized grassland sites across six continents over 15 years found that fertilization increased pasture biomass by an average of 43 per cent.

A three-year forage fertility trial at Elora conducted through the Ontario Forage Network produced similar findings.

The U of G study, part of the university’s Food From Thought program, underscores what many agronomists have long suspected: pasture fertility is one of the most underutilized levers in beef cattle production.

“Improved pasture fertility can absolutely bring improved yield — and improved production, which can absolutely enhance that pasture,” said Colin Elgie, soil fertility specialist for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness (OMAFA), speaking during the Beef is ON fall webinar series.

How pasture fertility differs from row crops

Unlike row crops, pastures draw down soil fertility more slowly. However, several factors still deplete nutrients over time:

• Organic matter breakdown
• Soil pH changes from precipitation and erosion
• Nutrient removal through harvesting, grazing, and manure management

The scale of removal depends on production type. Removing two tons per acre of grass-legume hay strips approximately 80 lbs. of nitrogen (N), 22 lbs. of phosphorus (P), and 90 lbs. of potassium (K) per acre. By contrast, cow-calf stocking at a half pair per acre removes only 5 lbs. N, 3.4 lbs. P, and 0.6 lbs. K per acre.

“We’re actually taking more off the field, but through urine and manure, that nitrogen is returning,” Elgie explained — though he noted that a quarter to half of that nitrogen can be lost through volatilization.

Livestock meat and milk production also removes roughly 10 to 30 per cent of ingested phosphorus and potassium from the field.

Why soil testing is the critical first step

Elgie emphasized that no single fertilizer program fits every pasture — making soil testing essential before any fertility decisions are made.

Proper soil sampling technique matters as much as frequency. Key guidelines include:

• Frequency: Sample every four to five years
• Cores: A minimum of 20 cores per field, taken in a zig-zag pattern
• Depth: Six inches, to capture the nutrient-rich root zone
• Tools: Use stainless steel probes and plastic pails — avoid galvanized metal tools, as zinc can leach into soil and skew nutrient analysis
• Labelling: Clearly and correctly label each sample

“We want that nutrient-rich zone where the majority of the roots are, the majority of the nutrients are, to really get a good analysis of what’s going on,” Elgie said.

Putting soil test data to work

Once producers have soil test results, Elgie recommends using OMAFA’s AgriSuite tools to:

• Input soil test results
• Generate crop-specific nutrient recommendations
• Estimate nutrient removal rates under grazing or haying scenarios

Sampling helps identify deficient and limiting nutrients, monitor fertility shifts over time, guide lime decisions, and prevent both over- and under-fertilization — a critical consideration, since pastures rarely have uniform fertility across a field.

Bottom line for beef cattle producers

Soil fertility management is not a one-time fix. It requires consistent monitoring and a willingness to tailor fertilizer programs to individual pasture conditions. But the return on investment — in the form of higher forage yields, healthier pastures, and stronger farm profitability — makes it one of the most cost-effective management tools available.

“One fertilizer program is not really going to fit every single pasture,” Elgie said.

The post How soil fertility management can boost pasture yield by 43 per cent appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The province’s crop report released on May 29 said seeding was 88 per cent complete, ahead of the five-year average of 82 per cent and the 10-year average of 85 per cent at this time of year.

The southwest was the furthest along in its seeding at 95 per cent complete, just ahead of the west-central region at 94 per cent, the northwest region at 93 per cent and the northeast region at 92 per cent. The east-central region (81 per cent) and the southeast region (80 per cent) lagged behind.

Field peas and lentils made the most progress at 98 per cent and 95 per cent complete, respectively. Triticale was 94 per cent planted, followed by durum and spring wheat (93 per cent), mustard (92 per cent), chickpeas (91 per cent) and barley (89 per cent). Canola was 83 per cent planted, while seeding for oats was 79 per cent complete, canary seed was 75 per cent finished and flax was reported at 73 per cent. Perennial forages were at 55 per cent and soybeans were at 48 per cent.

Weyburn received the most rainfall during the week at 66 millimetres, hindering seeding operations in the area. Griffin and Indian Head each received 20 mm and 18 mm, respectively.

Heat and wind caused a slight overall decline in topsoil moisture levels across Saskatchewan. Cropland topsoil moisture was at four per cent surplus, 65 per cent adequate and 27 per cent short. Hayland topsoil moisture was at two per cent surplus, 59 per cent adequate and 31 per cent short. Pasture topsoil moisture was reported to be one per cent surplus, 56 per cent adequate, 33 per cent short and two per cent very short.

Fall cereals were rated at 89 per cent normal crop development, while spring cereals were estimated to be 73 per cent normal. Pulse crops were 76 per cent normal and oilseeds were 73 per cent normal. Perennial forage was 79 per cent normal, while annual forage was 77 per cent normal.

Along with weather conditions, flooding and frost also caused minor crop damage, as well as flea beetles, wireworms and cutworms. There were also reports of grasshoppers hatching, but very few instances of crop damage attributed to them.

Seeding should be completed next week, while producers also move cattle to pasture as well as spraying fields and rolling land.

The post Saskatchewan Crop Report: Seeding to be completed next week appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Farmers in the province have planted 18 per cent of the expected 2025 crop as of May 5, as reported in the province’s first crop report of the season released on May 8. The five-year average at this time of year was 10 per cent, while the 10-year average was 12 per cent. Producers took advantage of dry weather in the final two weeks of April despite storms throughout the rest of the month.

The most rainfall during the week ended May 5 was reported around Alida in the southeast corner of the province at 16 millimetres.

The southwest region was 43 per cent complete, followed by the northwest at 15 per cent, the southeast at 14 per cent, the west-central region at 11 per cent and the east-central and northeast regions at nine per cent.

Saskatchewan’s lentil crop was 34 per cent planted, with durum (33 per cent), triticale (31 per cent) and field peas (31 per cent) not far behind. Chickpeas were 28 per cent planted, while mustard was at 21 per cent. Barley and spring wheat crops were 19 per cent and 13 per cent planted, respectively. Canola was 10 per cent seeded, followed by flax (six per cent), perennial forage (five per cent), canary seed (four per cent), oats (four per cent) and soybeans (less than one per cent).

Topsoil moisture for cropland was rated at three per cent surplus, 78 per cent adequate, 16 per cent short and three per cent very short. Moisture for hayland was reported at one per cent surplus, 71 per cent adequate, 22 per cent short and six per cent very short. Pasture topsoil moisture conditions were reported at one per cent surplus, 68 per cent adequate, 23 per cent short and eight per cent very short.

Spring runoff was reported in late April, with provincial data indicating 30 per cent below normal, 55 per cent normal and 15 per cent above normal. Seventy-six per cent of crop reporters said that the amount of runoff received would be sufficient to replenish dugouts and other water bodies within their area. But 52 per cent of respondents in the southwest region said the amount of runoff may not be sufficient to replenish dugouts within their area.

Six per cent of pastures were in excellent condition in late April, 42 per cent were reported to be in good condition, 36 per cent were reported as fair, 13 per cent were reported as poor, and three per cent were very poor.

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Based on data from over 1,000 regional studies combined with machine learning, researchers estimated that as many as 1.4 billion people live in areas with soil dangerously polluted by heavy metals like arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, nickel and lead. The study revealed a global risk, but also a previously unrecognized high-risk, metal-enriched zone in low-latitude Eurasia in particular.

The growth in demand for critical metals means toxic heavy metal pollution in soils is only likely to worsen.

“We hope that the global soil pollution data presented in this report will serve as a scientific alert for policymakers and farmers to take immediate and necessary measures to better protect the world’s precious soil resources,” said the study authors led by Deyi Hou of Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Toxic heavy metal pollution in soil, originating from both natural sources and human activities, poses significant risks to ecosystems and human health. Once introduced into soils, such metals can persist over decades. These pollutants reduce crop yields, affect biodiversity and jeopardize water quality as well as food safety through bioaccumulation in farm animals.

The researchers estimate that 14 to 17 per cent of cropland globally — roughly 242 million hectares — is contaminated by at least one toxic metal, with cadmium being the most widespread, especially in South and East Asia, parts of the Middle East and Africa.

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It’s why he wrote Practical Regeneration: Realistic Strategies for Climate Smart Agriculture.

“The main thing was going to all these conferences of just amazing results from practices. It was, I call them, ‘celebrity farmers,’ it’s not even research scientists or policy makers, it’s people who have fairly extraordinary claims of those things are working,” said Gillespie, who has nearly two decades of experience in dryland and irrigated specialty crop agriculture.

“A lot of the point of the book is first of all having things that are economical that make sense for farmers to do. You shouldn’t do something just because it’s a principle, because someone says it does something.”

Gillespie said more efficient use of inputs is an area where farmers could make improvements with further research on best practices, although he acknowleges they have already made great strides.

“Realistically, when you look at western Canadian production compared to a lot of other areas in the world, we use a lot less fertilizer and we all are mostly no till. The big things that are going to help, we are already there comparatively (to other nations),” said Gillespie.

“Even broadcasting fertilizer, banding it or placing it right physically into the soil, that is already happening. In some ways, they are already further ahead in Western Canada, and we can keep going forward. Comparing it to even 20 years ago, we are using more nitrogen fertilizer, but our yields are higher. If you look at use per bushel, we are getting more efficient. Just because of the climate being drier, we don’t use as much fertilizer as other areas do. A big one, I think, we can do is improving mapping with precise rates for different zones in the field.”

He said agronomists combine the science of growing crops with enhancing the soil and then advise farmers when they have questions about either.

His podcast, Plants Dig Soil, focuses on scientifically proven practices that benefit the planet and provide for farmers’ economic sustainability.

His book has 24 chapters that touch on such topics as defining regenerative agriculture, a long view of regeneration, return on investment, evaluating products, full season cover, when rains don’t come, strategic tillage for soil health and selling and using carbon as a tool.

“The last half of the book is talking about carbon sequestration programs which are a little bit different. They are talking about paying farmers to put carbon into the soil. My opinion is you can’t just put carbon into the soil. It’s a system; you can put more in, but it activates it,” said Gillespie.

“They will talk about being more regenerative, getting your soil working for you. A better functioning soil is more biologically active, so if you put more into it, more comes out of it in terms of carbon dioxide, so it doesn’t change things a whole lot.”

In the days of climate-change anxiety, Gillespie has seen people choose agricultural systems that seem right on the surface but don’t make a noticeable difference.

His book starts with the broad strokes of what Gillespie has learned in his own personal garden.

Gardening was a hobby growing up on a farm in southern Ontario, and that love of the land blossomed into a life-long journey in agriculture.

The book then shifts to how farmers can get practical in implementing the main healthy-soil practices, such as cover crops and intercropping. It then segues into how farmers can advance their practices above the basics, concluding by looking into the future and examining how farmers can look at profitability in the long term.

Gillespie, who runs an agronomy business, Plants Dig Soil Consulting Ltd., says his book focuses on southern Alberta but can also be applicable to other regions.

“It has helped people find out more about how I think, and then when they need consulting work, whether it’s farmers or organizations that need help wading through stuff, I have had a few who have directly told me they read the book and now they are coming to me,” said Gillespie.

The post Book sees both sides of regenerative agriculture appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

However, according to Curtis Cavers, an agronomist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, there are practical strategies to mitigate the problem and improve crop yields.

Cavers presented his erosion research at Manitoba Potato Production Days in late January at Brandon’s Keystone Centre.

Knolls and uplands are often some of the first places a farmer will develop an erosion problem.

It’s an issue that’s been tackled repeatedly by experts like David Lobb out of the University of Manitoba. In one 2019 Manitoba Ag Days presentation, Lobb argued that erosion-driven yield loss was costing Canadian farmers about $3.1 billion a year. Of those eroded areas, he noted, hilltops or knolls were some of the greatest culprits.

Tillage erosion has been a repeated topic in many of those erosion presentations, although wind erosion has also made its mark in the headlines thanks to visually striking instances of blowing soil.

Cavers also noted soil movement in those patches due to the tendancy for water to run off rather than soak in. Years of wind, water, and tillage erosion have stripped many of these patches of their topsoil, leaving behind poor seedbed conditions and low soil organic matter and soil carbon, he noted.

Those eroded hilltops often also have uneven fertility, Cavers said. Unless the farm is using certain types of precision technology, the eroded, marginal patches often get the same fertilizer as the rest of the field. Soil tests will often show excess, unused nutrient since those patches lack the plant growth to use them up.

“If you see that over time, there’s that possibility that that there could be a buildup of nutrients at these locations. So, the only way to know is to test,” Cavers said.

Farmers can confirm the impact of erosion by looking at yield maps or relying on their own experience, he added.

“You travel over a piece of ground hundreds of times in your career. You start to know what parts of the field are the productive parts and which ones are not so much.”

Recovery

Cavers pointed to several possible strategies for farmers to try and restore productivity to their eroded hilltops.

One option is to increase fertilizer and seeding rates in those patches. That more intensive management might improve yields, but it also hits on the other end of the profit margin, with increased nutrient and seed costs.

“Fertilizer is not cheap. It could be a quick fix in some cases. In other cases, you’re going to spend a pile of money and still have nothing to show for it,” Cavers cautioned.

Water is a major driver of yield potential. Therefore, the steady, measured water volumes from irrigation can help bolster crops, especially in dry years. It’s also already a strategy prevelant on Manitoba’s sandy, light potato ground.

“It’s really hard to grow a decent crop with no water, or very little water, or water that comes at the wrong time,” Cavers said.

Applying manure or compost can increase organic matter and improve soil structure, but availability and cost may be limiting factors. Planting cover crops helps protect soil from erosion and adds organic matter, but the benefits of that are gradual rather than immediate, occuring over the space of years.

Tillage is another often-pointed to villain when it comes to erosion. But while switching to conservation tillage or no-till might prevent more damage, it won’t necessarily restore soil health was lost due to erosion and, in a crop like potatoes, doing away with soil disturbance entirely is not a viable strategy anyway.

“No-till will stop the bleeding, but we have to then look at [options] for healing and recovery and all that in the long term,” Cavers said.

Topsoil redistribution is the method Cavers suggest in most cases. This strategy involves moving the previously washed down soil from lower areas back to the eroded hilltops.

He referenced one study where topsoil addition nearly doubled yield on eroded land when combined with increased seeding rates.

A mix of approaches often works best, depending on individual field conditions, Cavers said.

“Maybe you mix and match and try more than one of these things to see if you [get] a positive outcome.”

Temper expectations

While mitigating strategies can address some production loss, Cavers warned producers against getting their hopes too high.

Eroded hilltops may never match the productivity of lower areas. Setting realistic expectations is key.

“You probably will never get [these] areas yielding the same as everything else,” he said. “If we could get 80 per cent, that’d be fantastic; 70 per cent would be great, especially if you could get it more consistently, maybe not year after year, but say, even three years out of five.”

Farmers should also take a cautious approach, testing strategies on small areas before applying them across an entire field.

“You don’t want to invest in a solution only to find out it doesn’t work for your conditions. Managing risks and having realistic expectations is key,” Cavers said.

He also said that, when attempting these strategies, it’s important for farmers to think like scientists — testing solutions and analyzing results.

“You don’t want to reject something out of hand after trying it once but, at the same time, you don’t want to say, ‘Oh, it worked good the first year, now I’m going to convert the whole farm.’”

The post Save your yield on eroded knolls appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Yet many farmers are now raising concerns about the rapid degradation of these soils over the last few years. This is happening so quickly they could potentially disappear in a period of 50 years.

This situation, which is unfolding worldwide, is alarming. Organic soils are among the pillars of food self-sufficiency in Québec, as elsewhere, and are essential to producing the vegetables that we eat every day. So it is crucial to stop their degradation.

Fortunately, our research work at Laval University’s Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, carried out in partnership with 14 vegetable farms, offers a glimmer of hope for ensuring the sustainability of these soils.

Degradation by the forces of nature

Organic soils are characterized by their high content of organic matter, which ranges from 30 per cent to almost 100 per cent. They consist mainly of plant residues, similar to compost, and are formed in peatlands, where the soil is gorged with water. High water content prevents oxygen from entering the soil and slowing down the decomposition of hydrophilic plant residues that accumulate over time.

The first essential step in cultivating these soils is drainage, i.e. removing the water from the soil. At this point, oxygen is introduced, an essential element for plant growth. However, the entry of oxygen accelerates the activity of soil microorganisms, which in turn, breaks down the accumulated organic matter. Organic soil carbon, the main constituent of organic matter, is then transformed into CO (carbon dioxide), which is dissipated into the air. The accumulated organic matter gradually disappears as a result. This microbial decomposition leads to the loss of around one centimetre of organic soil per year.

In addition to soil loss, decomposition by microbes also alters the quality of soil. Soil that is initially composed of plant fibres is gradually transformed into fine, ash-like particles. This finer material causes the soil to become more compact and less aerated, which slows down water and air exchange essential to the growth of agricultural plants. These fine particles are also easily carried away by the wind, accelerating soil loss.

At the present time almost 16 per cent of the land area of cultivated organic soil in Québec’s Montérégie region is already considered thin and highly degraded due to heavy decomposition. This is an alarming finding for the future of vegetable production, especially if this proportion increases.

The region’s farmers, the first to witness this degradation, are looking for solutions to protect their land.

A nature-based solution

In the past, the main method recommended for conserving organic soils was applying copper to slow down the decomposition by microbes. Copper can inhibit the activity of enzymes produced by microorganisms, which is like slowing down their digestive system.

However, our work revealed that this approach was not very effective. The method also poses a risk of environmental contamination due to the potential dispersion of copper in natural environments.

The new approach we propose is based on the natural principle of photosynthesis. Through this process, plants use energy from the sun and CO from the air to produce plant tissue. Plants then transform the CO in the air into organic carbon, the main constituent of organic matter. This process is, therefore, the opposite of decomposition.

Straw and wood are particularly rich in organic matter and organic carbon. That’s why we’ve decided to concentrate on using these materials, which are produced on land of low fertility, harvested and then applied to organic soils to add carbon.

Straw and wood to the rescue

Our research has shown that applying straw or wood chips to organic soils can compensate for the carbon and soil losses caused by microbial decomposition. What’s more, when mixed with soil in appropriate doses, straw and wood chips have the potential to restore the soil aeration and drainage that are essential for good vegetable growth.

However, as the addition of new organic matter to the soil stimulates microbial activity, doses must be adjusted to avoid creating too much competition between plants and soil microbes for certain essential elements, such as nitrogen. So it is important to apply the appropriate doses to maintain a balance between the needs of the soil microbes and of the plants.

As a result, this practice holds the potential to regenerate cultivated organic soils and improve the climatic footprint of vegetables in Québec and elsewhere.

In parallel, we have also explored the use of polyphenols in slowing down decomposition. These molecules, produced by plants, are known to slow down the activity of degradative enzymes in natural organic soils, but their use for cultivated organic soils had not been studied. This approach has shown promising potential but requires further study before it can be applied on a large scale. For the time being, our studies have been limited to a small number of soils, which does not allow us to generalize the conclusions on a large scale.

Our team is also carrying out work on wind erosion and drainage to enable the conservation and restoration of these central soils in vegetable production.

Mobilizing the farming community

Aware of the urgent need to take action to save their soils, farmers have already begun applying straw and wood chips to their land to preserve this limited and fragile resource for future generations. They have also joined together to take part in another research program, from 2024 to 2029, which will work to optimize this solution.

This initiative has gained the attention of international farmers and researchers who have come from England, Belgium, Finland and Sweden to visit the Québec farms where this new practice has been adopted.

The degradation of cultivated organic soils is a worldwide phenomenon that threatens to wipe out many highly fertile agricultural production areas. So it is important to take an interest and act quickly.

—Karolane Bourdon, Jacynthe Dessureault-Rompré, Jean and Josée Fortin are researchers in Laval University’s department of Agricultural and Food Sciences

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The senator spoke metres from the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association’s soil pit, displaying the challenges and benefits of soil health during Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show on Sept. 11.

“My biggest fear is that we’re going to wake up someday and realize that we can’t feed our province,” said Black. “Let alone the country or the two billion more that we have in the world (in 30 years). That’s a scary thing.”

The report makes 25 recommendations; however, designating soil as a national strategic resource, creating a national soil database and appointing a national soil advocate all rank high on Sen. Black’s wish list.

Heather White, Soils at Guelph knowledge mobilization and communications coordinator, said Critical Ground’s focus is a broader road map to soil-health benefits compared to the narrower conservation angle of Senator Herb Sparrow’s 40-year-old report “Soil at Risk.”

“Soil health is a suite of principals being applied, as opposed to a particular practice, which is a good way to think about how to manage the diversity of soil,” White said. “It’s easy to forget about soil’s importance and take it for granted. It’s putting it on people’s radars again, and that’s important.”

Additionally, the report highlights the relationship between water management and soil health, the need for data-driven decisions and support for data capture, whether it’s a snapshot or aspects requiring ongoing monitoring.

“It certainly highlights the need for a connecting piece between the research and the practitioners,” she said, adding Soils at Guelph provides a conduit for fact-based information.

The report was tabled in the Senate on June 13, with the government having until Nov. 10 to respond.

“Then it’s time for all of us, organizations, individuals, journalists, to keep their feet to the fire,” he said. “If they say they’re going to act on identifying soils as a national asset, then let’s get that done.”

Black urged anyone to utilize the report to advance soil health advocacy and research.

While in Vancouver in June, speaking with the Canadian Society of Soil Scientists, he learned they were using it for funding applications – six days after its release.

“That’s pretty cool,” he said, adding he hopes the government will willingly drive the report forward. “We can push and shove them, collectively as organizations, provincially and nationally, but my hope is they’ll see the value in what we did.”

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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 passing.

Born in 1940 at Milden, about 100 km southwest of Saskatoon, Henry studied agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan, earning a master’s degree in soil science in 1968.

Earlier this year he recalled how, in the wake of the financial and agronomic devastation of Prairie farming in the 1930s, “my dad showed me the cheque that cleared the mortgage (and) added, ‘there will never be another mortgage on this farm.’ I respected that decision but it was part of the reason I went off to U of S after two years on the farm.”

At U of S, he joined the soil science department in 1968 as an assistant, en route to becoming a full professor and extension specialist there in 1980.

The Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame, into which Henry was inducted in 2004, said his research on irrigation and on crops’ potassium requirements “showed the way to increased production” while his research on the underlying cause of soil salinity “provided a major breakthrough in the management of saline soils.”

Although Henry retired from the U of S in 1996, his outreach to farmers continued in Grainews, where his soils column has appeared regularly for the past 48 years. Former Grainews editor Kari Belanger in 2022 hailed Henry for his “extraordinary ability to take complex information about soils and convey these ideas in a manner anyone can understand.”

His contributions to Grainews have included a Prairie stubble soil moisture map, released annually since 1979 and used as a reference tool across the industry.

His published works also include Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water, which has undergone multiple printings since its first appearance in 2003, and for which the copyright was recently transferred to Saskatoon-based Croptimistic Technology to continue its publication.

In 2000, Henry also wrote and published Catalogue Houses: Eaton’s and Others, a book about the “catalogue homes” or “kit homes” sold to Prairie customers by Eaton’s and other retailers in the first half of the 20th century.

Henry also continued farming on three quarters at Dundurn, about 30 km south of Saskatoon, often describing that site as a “field lab” for his further research. He also continued consulting privately in Canada and overseas, including in Tanzania, China and Eswatini (then called Swaziland).

In his professional life Henry also served as president of the Saskatoon branch and provincial council of the Saskatchewan Institute of Agrologists, president of the Saskatchewan Agriculture Graduates Association and chairman of the Saskatchewan Advisory Fertilizer Council.

Other accolades for his work included an honorary doctor of laws degree from the U of S (2022), honorary life membership in the Canadian Society of Extension (1994), fellowship with the Agricultural Institute of Canada (1989) and the Agronomy Merit Medal from Western Cooperative Fertilizers (1985).

At Henry’s request, a private family interment will be held with no funeral. Before his passing, he wrote that “anyone wishing to connect with the spirit of the deceased” could watch his 2022 convocation address to the U of S College of Agriculture and Bioresources and Western College of Veterinary Medicine (roll ahead to about the 46-minute mark) — and/or listen to this.

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