Agronomist Notes
Happy New Year and welcome to Volume 5, Issue 1 of Beyond Agronomy News! I hope you had a refreshing Christmas break and are ready to tackle 2010. In the months ahead, I will b...
Agronomist Notes
Here it is, the 46th and final issue of Beyond Agronomy News for 2009. What a year it has been! I must say, looking back on my travels to New Zealand, Australia and the UK this...
Agronomist Notes
It’s hard to believe but this is the 45th and second last issue of Beyond Agronomy News for 2009. Time flies when you’re having fun or when you’re so busy you...
Agronomist Notes
I have another action packed week ahead as I take in the AgriTrend Farm Forum event in Saskatoon on Wednesday and Thursday. I thought I’d be nice and make a donation to m...
Agronomist Notes
I arrived home from England on Sunday night after a peaceful ten hour flight. During my stay I had a great chance to visit with farmers who are pioneering controlled traffic, m...
Agronomist Notes
Hello from Lincolnshire, UK! After three hours in airports, nine hours of air time, three hours driving on the wrong side of the road and 40 roundabouts, I made it to my destin...
Agronomist Notes
In the past few days, a small window of opportunity has opened for harvesting some tough wheat, barley and canola. The picture you see here is of a producer near Three Hills ta...
Agronomist Notes
My favorite part of soil testing has begun- time to read the results! It looks like the average nitrogen level for most fields is hovering around 40 lbs but I caution that this...
Agronomist Notes
Another week of sub-zero temperatures has gone by and very few producers were able to harvest the last of their canola. Moisture levels in the swath went from 5.5% to 13.5% but...
Agronomist Notes
Mitch and I finished up harvest last Friday, just before the snow and rain hit on Sunday. How many times I’ve voiced my thankfulness! Most producers have finished as well...
Agronomist Notes
Another week of fine weather has passed, bringing most of the 2009 harvest season to a close. I estimate harvest is 95% complete in my area. The only crop still out is canola w...
Agronomist Notes
What an unbelievable stretch of weather we’ve had since September 1st! Three weeks of hot, dry weather allowed many to get their wheat off in top grade and let the immatu...
Agronomist Notes
Another fine week of warm, dry weather has helped dry down crops dramatically, though many fields are still weeks away. Late tillers, green strips and second flushes of weeds a...
Agronomist Notes
We’ve finally had some fantastic drying weather the last seven days. Pre-harvest glyphosate is in full swing, canola swathing has just begun and some early peas have been...
Agronomist Notes
Another week of cooler weather has gone by and many producers had 1.5 to 5 inches of rain in the last four days. This will add a lot of bushel weight to later crops and will ad...
Agronomist Notes
The past seven days brought intermittent showers ranging from 0.25 to 1.5 inches, severe hail and cool daytime temperatures. I’m thankful for the rain but we just lost fi...
Agronomist Notes
We’re now on the home stretch to harvest, which is hard to believe! I suspect there will be a lot of canola cut the last week of August and malt barley combined at the sa...
Agronomist Notes
What a cooker we had last week with temperatures in the low 30’s. With very little sub-soil moisture, the hot, dry weather has really taken a toll on crops. Fortunately, ...
Agronomist Notes
Well, July weather finally began on Saturday with temperatures reaching into the low 30’s. I noticed the early seeded canola fields around home began to drop petals prema...
Agronomist Notes
The weather last week was perfect with showers at night, high humidity and cool day time temperatures. It certainly increased water use efficiencies and generated more bushels ...
Agronomist Notes
And breathe! We’ve come a long way since the beginning of seeding of May. I’ve completed my post herbicide checks and can happily say that I’ve only had three...
Agronomist Notes
We’re now at the end of spraying with crop stages progressing quickly, but not for good reason. With roughly one inch of accumulated rainfall across the territory in the ...
Agronomist Notes
The majority of producers are on the tail end of spraying after last week’s excellent weather with light winds and warm overnight temperatures. Crop maturity has progress...
Agronomist Notes
The last week brought mainly warmer weather with the soil temperature warming up 8 degrees to roughly 18 degrees Celsius on average. Soil temperatures have been hovering around...
Agronomist Notes
What a spring! Spring 2009 is the seventh coldest on record since 1950. We had two frosts last week and another one yesterday morning, for a total of five frost events this sea...
Agronomist Notes
We finally had some warm weather last week to help crops progress and put an end to a long cold spring. I’d say 98% of seeding is now complete with in-crop herbicide spra...
Agronomist Notes
Last week saw seeding progress draw near to completion. Most producers are 90 to 100% complete compared to the Prairie average of 78%. We had a major frost event around the Cal...
Agronomist Notes
We finally had a decent stretch of weather last week to bring seeding progress up to 75% complete in our area. There are a few areas around Calgary that are 40 to 60% complete ...
Agronomist Notes
It’s May 12th and many producers are now half to two-thirds finished seeding. The majority of wheat and peas are in with the tail end of canola to complete and the feed b...
Agronomist Notes
We’re now full swing into seeding with most producers roughly 10 to 30 percent complete. We’re a little behind the normal timeline but it’s nothing to panic a...
Agronomist Notes
Well, seeding officially began last week with a few early birds seeding peas and malt barley. The rest of us looked at the calendar and weather forecast and decided to wait it ...
Agronomist Notes
I spent last week finishing up client visits and dodging unexpected wet areas while soil sampling. In my territory, soil moisture ranges from 1.5 inches in the east and 2.5 inc...
Agronomist Notes
I’m two-thirds through my pre-seeding visits and it looks like we’re all starting to get a little itchy to pull out the drills, even though some are still buried un...
Agronomist Notes
Last Thursday I had the pleasure of hosting a wine and cheese event for clients and friends to present my recent Nuffield travels. Many enjoyed learning about how others farm i...
Agronomist Notes
We had another spree of foggy days last week which has given me more optimism in this summer’s rainfall potential. I know that every meteorologist will argue that fog and...
Agronomist Notes
Spring is quickly approaching and pre-seeding visits are just around the corner. Soon we’ll be making final adjustments to pre-burn herbicides, seeding rates and crop rot...
Agronomist Notes
I made it home safe and sound last Monday after an unexpected overnight in LA which broke up the 30-hour trip home from Western Australia. Since then, I’ve had some time ...
Agronomist Notes
I finally made the long journey back to Canada after five challenging and rewarding weeks away. After 48 hours of flying, 20 hours waiting in 13 airports driving 5,0...
Agronomist Notes
I arrived in Victoria last Sunday to find the state was up in smoke and my destination, Horsham, was on fire.
I arrived late in the evening, a day after the worst of the fi...
Agronomist Notes
I’ve spent the week on the south island of New Zealand traveling from farm to farm through some of the most beautiful countryside I’ve ever seen. Rolling...
Agronomist Notes
Kia ora tatou (hello everyone) from beautiful New Zealand!
I arrived in Christchurch on Sunday to a warm 30oC welcome. This is my kind of January! Comfortably settled in my...
Agronomist Notes
This will be my last newsletter written from Canada for the next five weeks. I leave Friday for New Zealand and Australia and will be back March 1st. As I’ve mentioned be...
Agronomist Notes
The weather has finally warmed up to -3 oC here which makes farm calls a lot easier and chores much nicer. Other than a couple fertilizer purchases and some herbicide pre-buy o...
Agronomist Notes
Happy New Year everyone! I enjoyed the holidays and I hope you did too. 2009 is shaping up to be an interesting year. Canola prices have been climbing, if only momentarily, and...
Agronomist Notes
Welcome to the 46th and final issue of Beyond Agronomy News for 2008. Looking back on the year, it’s easy to remember the challenges that were thrown at us once again.
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