I’ve been out hand soil sampling fields all day, so here’s an interesting quote on farming versus politics. And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground, where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, [...]
Yesterday our ATV got stuck sampling a very wet field. Given how wet this year has been, I expect it’ll happen a few more times over the course of fall soil sampling. I decided to do some looking around online to see if I could find some tips on how to get an ATV unstuck. [...]
When you’re building a house and want to put in a new septic system, you might not think of calling an agrologist. With the increased emphasis on reducing water pollution, Tone Ag is being called in to look at the soils on building sites. When existing soil maps indicate that there is a risk of [...]
We didn’t get involved in hemp production this year, but a few years ago Ron wrote up a fact sheet for farmers who are considering growing hemp in Manitoba. If you’re thinking of growing hemp in 2010, this is a good place to start. Feel free to give Ron a call at 204-433-7189 or 204-346-2064 [...]
Make Magazine pointed me towards these photos of living root bridges. Now we just need to find trees that will grow like this in Manitoba and grow them sturdy enough to drive across. This shows that there are still a lot of possibilities for agriculture out there. With the work being done in genomics I [...]
Foxtail barley is a native perennial weed in Manitoba. It spreads by seeds, but can also sprout from buds when established in a field. Foxtail barley is mostly a problem in zero-till systems and pastures because foxtail barley can largely be controlled by tillage. Control Options There are a number of control options for foxtail [...]
I missed this when it came out in late June, but the Manitoba Conservation Livestock Program Newsletter – Spring 2009 (PDF). Some of the highlights are: Short biographies of the new people Conservation has hired. I’ve noticed that Kristian Stephens and Dianne Smith have been reviewing Manure Management Plans with eagle eyes. If you have [...]
I find articles on urban agriculture interesting. Unfortunately I don’t know how practical it is, but I think it is at least worth exploring. Here are a few of my thoughts on agriculture in cities. Reconnect urbanites to food production. Many people seem to believe that their food magically appears at the grocery store. If [...]
I found this post interesting Clubroot-resistant canola widely available in 2010. It’s not so much the clubroot resistance that interests me as clubroot isn’t a major problem around here, it’s that this is a canola with more features and without loss of yield. As is doubtless apparent from my other posts, I feel that genetically [...]
Tone Ag Consulting uses a two step process to map soil salinity. First,we use Veris to measure the electrical conductivity (EC) of the soil across the field. Then we select areas of the field with high, medium, and low EC and take soil samples. These samples are sent to a soils laboratory to measure their [...]
