News and updates

While the term soil health is quite pervasive in the scientific and agricultural communities, its meaning and scope are ambiguous. Dr. H. Henry Janzen and his colleagues in the Soil Biology and Biochemistry journal1 recently published an excellent article on this topic.

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada approved a three-year grant to fund a strip tillage and precision planting at Farming Smarter.

The government created RDAR (Results Driven Agricultural Research).  They touted it as a one stop funding agency that would empower farmers to decide how to spend public investment in research and extension.  An interesting idea with some good promise, but not without challenge.

The final segment on beneficial soil microorganisms looks at the complicated and crucial relationship between plants and soil microorganisms.

It's been a busy winter at Farming Smarter, we've had a lot of data to analyze. Now, we're ready to bring you the results and updates on our Custom Research projects!

Biostimulants are a relatively new class of crop additive that suggests they can help grow healthier, therefore higher yield/quality crops.

Continuing the series on soil microorganisms, let's talk about the importance of soil rhizobacteria. Rhizobacteria are a type of bacteria that inhabit the soil zone immediately around plant roots as well as the root surface and nodules.

This week we talk to you about durum agronomy and specifically, planter research. Someone told Ken Coles that durum agronomy hasn't seen updates for 20 years. Coles got on the case to do multi-factor durum research.

Jamie Puchinger, Farming Smarter Assistant Manager and Morton Molyneux, K2 communications, talk about taking Farming Smarter events digital.

In this episode, Michael Kaake talks to Andre Lacoursiere, 2nd Opinion Consulting Inc., about agronomy and how COVID-19 affected his company in 2020.

Farming Smarter joined Dr. Randy Kutcher, University of Saskatchewan Chair in Cereal and Flax Crop Pathology, to study fusarium head blight in rotations.

Deciding what crops to put in rotations and in what sequence can make the gears in your head grind. Fear not farmers, we have the answers for you based on our novel crop rotational study.

Scott Gillespie, Agronomist of Plants Dig Soil, talks about interesting things he saw in southern Alberta fields over the 2020 growing season.

The high value specialty crop project fits with Farming Smarter's mandate to change the way people farm.

A steady domestic market, seeding/harvest timing and lots of upside yield potential spur annual increases in Alberta's corn acres. Corn offers an ever-expanding line-up of herbicide tolerant and insect resistant hybrids with lower heat unit needs.

Mike talks to Diane Westerlund about the provincial soil benchmarking project.

The industrial hemp project called Agronomic Influences on Fiber & Grain builds on a previous hemp project led by Dr. Jan Slaski at InnoTech Alberta. These trials were built on the knowledge we gained from the first projects and on questions that arose the first time around.

Mike Kaake did a 150 hour Digital Media practicum with Farming Smarter in September 2020. During this time, we asked him to produce five podcasts.

The purpose of rolling barley is to push rocks into the soil so that the chopper header does not hit the rocks, avoiding damage to the equipment. However, there seems to be no common time to roll and rolling occurs at many different stages of crop growth.

This unit's goal is to share learning that comes from Farming Smarter and other researchers. The unit produces all external communication and extension.

The research unit run by soil scientist, Gurbir Dhillon Ph.D., and research coordinator, Mike Gretzinger, leads grant-funded research projects either led by Farming Smarter or in collaboration with researchers from other institutions.

Lewis Baarda, On-Farm Research, leads the Field-tested unit doing field-scale research with farmers and farm managers.

Harvest time is a busy time of the year. It is hustle and bustle to get everything done on time. In the rushed panic, safety may not be on everyone's mind. To help keep everyone safe during harvest, here are tips for harvest safety.