Reading Time: < 1 minute Weather and new varieties will be in the spotlight at 2017 Agronomy Update in Lethbridge on Jan. 17-18. “New varieties are always showing up with different growing seasons,” said provincial crop specialist Harry Brook. “We’ve got producers in the south who are successfully growing soybeans. There is new information every year when it comes to […] Read more
Lots on offer at agronomy update
Early-bird registration until Jan. 6
Alberta producers aren’t sold on sustainability certification programs
Only 30 per cent of farmers believe sustainability certification will be part of doing business in the next five years
Reading Time: 4 minutes Alberta producers don’t know much about sustainability certification programs — but they don’t think it matters much anyway. Those were the key findings of a survey of 400 Alberta producers who were asked about sustainability practices on their farms. While producers are making headway on adopting sustainable production practices, they’re not yet sold on the […] Read more
When it comes to healthy soil, you want to lump it
Soil aggregation is critical — in several different ways — to growing healthy crops
Reading Time: 4 minutes Think water is your biggest limiting factor when growing a crop? Think again. “Soil aggregation is the most important constraint that we have,” said Yamily Zavala, crop and soil health management specialist at Chinook Applied Research Association. “In order for a soil to function properly, we have to have all the soil processes — physical, […] Read more
‘Eco-buffer’ boosts pasture productivity for Alberta producer
Letting nature do its job got Don Ruzicka off a treadmill of clearing trees, draining wetlands, and poor returns
Reading Time: 4 minutes Some people look for signs — other people just find them. For producer Don Ruzicka of Killam, the motivation behind the past three decades of land management on his farm was quite literally a sign. Before he purchased his grandparents’ farm in 1983, Ruzicka worked in the logging industry. “The first day I flew into […] Read more
Good grazing management can get you through a drought
Having diverse life in and on the soil will help get your cattle through a drought year
Reading Time: 3 minutes When drought hits, you can blame Mother Nature — but management practices also come into play. “I don’t want to say that it doesn’t matter what happens with rain and that all drought is man made because of bad management,” said Vermont grazier Abe Collins. “That’s a very extreme position. Sometimes it doesn’t rain, and […] Read more
One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to organic crop rotations
Three organic producers share their top tips for building a sustainable crop rotation — no matter what kind of operation you have
Reading Time: 4 minutes Organic crop rotations are “a real ball of wax to deal with,” says veteran organic grower Steven Snider. “There’s so many options out there. I think people would like for me to just tell them what to put in, and that would be nice and simple,” said Snider, who runs an organic grain operation near […] Read more
Want to up your grazing game? Disrupt, diversify, and stock high
Use a rich mix of forage species, build organic matter, and fight that urge to do the same things year after year, says expert
Reading Time: 3 minutes More of the same is not a good thing when it comes to pastures. “When you have a monoculture above the ground, you have a monoculture below the ground,” said grazing consultant Allen Williams. “In most monoculture situations, you have mined out many of the available minerals within the first two or three strata of […] Read more
The road to better soil health comes from a change in attitude
Spend lots of time digging holes and looking at soil in your fields, says Quebec researcher
Reading Time: 3 minutes Improve your soil health and increased yields and other benefits will follow. But first you need to change your priorities. “How much time do you spend in a year taking care of your tractor?” agricultural engineer Odette Menard asked attendees at last month’s Western Canada Conference on Soil Health. “We spend more time taking care […] Read more
We need to dig deep and better understand our soils
Healthy soil is our greatest asset, and farm practices focused on just the short term undermine our competitive advantage
Reading Time: 3 minutes I believe that at some point in history, we will fully appreciate and understand that healthy soil is our greatest competitive advantage and the most valuable asset on Earth. As agriculture is the foundation of all civilization, we cannot ignore the evolution of food production. We have gone from gathering food to industrialized agriculture and […] Read more
Sowing gardens — and hope for a brighter future
A school garden may seem like a small thing but it can make a powerful difference
Reading Time: 3 minutes This is the story of Jimboy. He is my friend from the Philippines — one of the 100 million people who live on the nation’s 300,000 square kilometres of islands. And he is making a difference. Jimboy lives in the Tagoloan region which is 19 kilometres from the capital. It is largely an agricultural area […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
