I attended Agvise‘s Soil Fertility Seminar in Carman on March 18. I learned a lot of interesting stuff. John Lee’s talk on Secondary and Micronutrients gave me some good pointers for situations in which to look for micronutrient deficiencies. For example, a copper deficiency is likely when the soil test is < 0.5 ppm, % [...]
Our annual meeting went well. Dr. Martin Nyachoti emphasized how important it is to know the feed you are supplying to your animals. As corn and wheat prices fluctuate, more and more people are looking at alternative feed ingredients. Be sure to know what nutrients alternative feeds supply and in what forms to ensure that [...]
I’m getting ready for our annual meeting where producers, applicators, and others get together in our office. This year Dr. Martin Nyachoti will be discussing Evaluating alternative feed ingredients. One of our clients, Garry Wollman, will describe how he applied the Feed Model in the real world to cut down drastically on overfeeding of phosphorous. [...]
“Just as the Green Revolution was based on crops responsive to high soil fertility, the Second Green Revolution will be based on crops tolerant of low soil fertility” Jonathan Lynch via Science Daily Unfortunately his full talk is not available for free (though you can buy it at the Audio Visual Education Network ) I [...]
If you would like a dose of hope, listen to Lowell B. Catlett’s Smart is Beautiful: 21st Century Agriculture’s Revolution speech. From what I have seen his figures are valid, so dare to hope!
Rich Zollinger from NDSU forwarded this paper on Glyphosate-Manganese Interactions in Roundup Ready Soybean (PDF). The quick summary is that most studies indicate that you should treat fields with manganese deficiencies similarly whether you’re planting conventional or Roundup Ready Soybeans. We did run into some manganese deficiencies in wheat last summer, so we will be [...]
Extension.org has a post on What do I need to know about manure agreements and land application easements for application of manure? that’s worth looking at, especially if you’re selling the manure from your livestock operation. As with any contract have a lawyer review it if you want it to stand up in court, but [...]
